Adriaan Jaeggi
Adriaan Jaeggi |
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| biographical notes | bibliography | bookings |
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| Hero by profession |
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Sam tries to cope with a mother that is drifting away from him,
a father that doesn't know what a family is, and three older
sisters that each have their own brand of hysteria.
Luckily, Sam is a fabulous swimmer. He finds succour in the stil blue waters of the swimingpool, and practices what his mother taught him: how to swim above the water. Each day, he begins a new search for The Swimmingpool That Never Ends, the pool where you can always keep swimming and nobody ever comes to tell you you time is up.
Hero by profession won the Halewijn Literary Award as
best novel of the year, and was nominated for the prestigious
AKO Award and Libris Literature Award.
Dutch and Belgian press raved
about Hero by profession (Held van beroep) by
Adriaan Jaeggi (Prometheus/Bert Bakker 1999)
'This heart-wrenching 15-year old has his predecessors in
literature. Salingers adolescents, for instance. Or the main
character from Portnoy's complaint, in the racier parts.'
De Volkskrant
'Hero by profession is exactly right. The story is solid
gold and its tone is light and transparant, clear as water.'
Dagblad De Limburger
'A deceptively simple style of writing.'
Carp magazine
'Fabulous tragic comedy about a young water-buff, Samsom
Fittipaldi.'
CJP-magazine
'What stays with you after finishing it is the enormous
sense of loneliness that permeates this book.'
Het Parool
'Mr. Jaeggi keeps a nice balance between symbolism and
sentimentalism. (-) Like Salingers Holden Caulfield he
speaks to the reader; he looks at his surroundings with
ironic distance and fumes about the hypocrisy of grown-ups.'
NRC Handelsblad
'Extremely funny.'
One magazine
'Absurd? Yes. But so brilliantly done! A sublime novel. A
must-read!'
De Roskam
'Mr Jaeggi's second novel, Hero by profession, is a
sometimes moving and melancholy, sometimes downright
hilarious book.'
Haagsche Courant
'I've taken Samson Fittipaldi, monopolyplayer, modest
swimming champion and especially: sharp observer of his own
family, into my heart. The light, elegant prose, drenched in
nostalgia and longing, makes one think of, here he comes
again, Salinger.'
Annemarie Oster, Woman of the world
'A style so precise it takes your breath away.'
Vrij Nederland
'An accomplished mix of laughter and tears.'
HP/De Tijd
'How much heroics can the modern novel take? The convincing
answer to that question is now in the bookstore, and its
title is Hero by profession.'
Elsevier magazine
'Hero by profession, because of its suggestive style and the
immense empathic capabilities of its author, is a remarkable
novel which, I hope, will atrract the attention of many a
jury for literary awards.'
De Morgen (Belgium)
'A wonderful, touching novel (-) proof of a major talent.'
De Volkskrant BIBLIOGRAPHY Cowboys hebben het maar makkelijk, poetry, Thomas Rap, Amsterdam, 1995 De tol van de roem, novel, Prometheus, Amsterdam, 1995 Held van beroep, novel, Bert Bakker, Amsterdam, 1999 Sorry dat ik het paard en de hond heb doodgeschoten, poetry, Bert Bakker, Amsterdam, Summer 2001. Luxeproblemen, stories and columns, Prometheus, Amsterdam,
2004. Appears 8th april.
NLPVF PUBLISHERS Uitgeverij Prometheus/Bert Bakker LINKS
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