Alphonse, funny, observant, and imaginative, is a former musician who has left Brussels with his girlfriend Cat to live near her parents in the buttoned-up rural district of Westhoek. It has open fields, wide low skies, more World War I graves than almost anywhere else in Europe—and one of the highest suicide rates in the Western world. Alphonse starts a new life as a handyman. As he paints and decorates the interior of people's homes he gets to know their complex emotional lives—their affairs, familty disturbances, messy divorces, everyday cruelties, and unexpected dreams. But when he, Cat, and a client help a group of Afghans and Syrians at a makeshift refugee camp, he learns that not all locals appreciate their work … Humorous, melancholy, and wise, this is a deeply moving story about love, outsiders, and the need to belong.
Author
Annelies Verbeke is a Flemish writer from Belgium. She lives in Ghent. Verbeke studied German language and Scenario writing. In 2003 she debuted at Uitgeverij De Geus with her novel Slaap! with which she won the Vlaamse debuutprijs, the Gouden Ezelsoor and the Vrouw en Kultuur Debuutprijs. The novel was on the longlists of the AKO Literatuurprijs and the Libris Literatuurprijs and was nominated for the Gerard Walschapprijs. Annelies Verbeke in the Dutch Wikipedia Annelies Verbeke in the Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren Annelies Verbeke at "Schrijversgewijs"
