The Outside of Mr. Jules
2001
First Published
4.02
Average Rating
80
Number of Pages
When Alice, an elderly woman, smells the coffee her husband Jules has just made, she gets up. This ritual repeats itself every day, until one morning she finds him lifeless on the sofa in the living room ― the coffee hasn’t quite finished filtering through. While Jules slowly turns into a statue that seems to be carved out of marble, Alice reminisces about earlier days and tells him things she hasn’t dared or been able to express before. When subsequently she has to come to terms with the sorrow and loss she is faced with, David, the autistic young son of a woman who lives in the same apartment building, becomes part of this process in an unexpected way. This deeply moving Belgian novel has been translated into many languages. The German edition alone has sold over 120,000 copies.
Avg Rating
4.02
Number of Ratings
1,185
5 STARS
28%
4 STARS
49%
3 STARS
18%
2 STARS
3%
1 STARS
1%
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Author
Diane Broeckhoven
Author · 13 books
Diane Broeckhoven ( Antwerp, March 4, 1946) is a Flemish writer. Diane Broeckhoven was born in Antwerp, but lived in the Netherlands for 30 years from 1970 . In 2000 she returned to her hometown. Besides writing books, she also works as a freelance journalist. Diane Broeckhoven has already published more than 20 children's books. She writes in a penetrating way about taboo-breaking subjects, eg about the death of a child in A dead bird, about AIDS in Kristalnacht, about the gap between rich and poor in A god with warm hands . In 1998 she wrote her first novel for adults. The German translation of The Outside of Meneer Jules ( Ein Tag mit Herrn Jules ) has sold some 250,000 copies. Travel Fever is the sequel to this book.
