The Detour (De omweg) is the third adult novel by Dutch writer Gerbrand Bakker. It was published in October 2010 and later translated into English by David Colmer as The Detour (U.S. edition: "Ten White Geese"). It is a study in self-searching, self-assertion and the nature of pain, narrated by a middle-aged Dutchwoman who has fled her husband to live in the solitude of rural Wales. [1] She sometimes watches Escape to the Country . [2]
According to Bakker, The Detour came from a "hugely depressed" time in his life. "I write instinctively. Something wants to come out. Only now do I see that this book is terribly much about myself. I write from the back of my mind. I don't see what I'm doing." [2]
The Detour won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (2013), [3] [4] and was one of eight finalists for the International Dublin Literary Award (2014). [5]
Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and have sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzou Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize.
John Maxwell Coetzee is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Prize (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates.
William John Banville is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry James are the two real influences on his work.
Aharon Appelfeld was an Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor.
The International Booker Prize is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize was announced in June 2004. Sponsored by the Man Group, from 2005 until 2015 the award was given every two years to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation. It rewarded one author's "continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage", and was a recognition of the writer's body of work rather than any one title.
José Eduardo Agualusa Alves da Cunha is an Angolan journalist and writer of Portuguese and Brazilian descent. He studied agronomy and silviculture in Lisbon, Portugal. Currently he resides in the Island of Mozambique, working as a writer and journalist. He also has been working to establish a public library on the island.
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (1990–2015) was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper The Independent to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched in 1990 and ran for five years before falling into abeyance. It was revived in 2001 with the financial support of Arts Council England. Beginning in 2011 the administration of the prize was taken over by BookTrust, but retaining the "Independent" in the name. In 2015, the award was disbanded in a "reconfiguration" in which it was merged with the Man Booker International Prize.
Escape to the Country is a British daytime television reality property-buying/real estate programme, created by Talkback Thames, which premieres on network BBC One, produced by John Comerford and is repeated on BBC Two. It first aired on 14 October 2002 and also airs internationally in broadcast syndication.
Elif Shafak^ is a Turkish-British novelist, essayist, public speaker, political scientist and activist.
Klaartje Quirijns is a Dutch film and television director and producer. In The Netherlands she worked as a documentary director and producer for the public stations VPRO, IKON and NPS.
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) is the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world.
Sinan Antoon, is an Iraqi poet, novelist, scholar, and literary translator. He has been described as "one of the most acclaimed authors of the Arab world." He is an associate professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University.
Yann Martel, is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize–winning novel Life of Pi, an international bestseller published in more than 50 territories. It has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and spent more than a year on the bestseller lists of the New York Times and The Globe and Mail, among many other best-selling lists. It was adapted for a movie directed by Ang Lee, garnering four Oscars including Best Director and winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.
Hassan Blasim is an Iraqi-born film director and writer. He writes in Arabic. He is a citizen of Finland.
Gerbrand Bakker is a Dutch writer. He won the International Dublin Literary Award for The Twin, the English translation of his novel Boven is het stil, and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The Detour, the English translation of his novel De omweg.
The Twin is a novel by Dutch writer Gerbrand Bakker. It won the International Dublin Literary Award in 2010, making Bakker the first Dutch writer to win the award, one of the world's richest literary awards, with a €100,000 prize. Boven is het stil was published in 2006 and its English translation, titled The Twin, followed in 2008. The novel was translated from Dutch by David Colmer. The novel's original Dutch title could be translated as "Upstairs, everything is quiet".
The Orphan Master's Son is a 2012 novel by American author Adam Johnson. It deals with intertwined themes of propaganda, identity, and state power in North Korea. The novel was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Peirene Press is an independent publishing house based in London. Established by novelist and publisher Meike Ziervogel, Peirene is primarily focused on bringing out high-quality English translations of contemporary European short novels. Peirene is also known for its regular literary salons, and for its pop-up bookstalls outside supermarkets and at farmers markets. Peirene Press donates 50p from the sale of each book to Counterpoint Arts, a charity that promotes the creative arts by and about refugees and migrants in the UK..
David Colmer is an Australian writer and translator, mainly of Dutch-language literature. He translates novels, poetry and children’s literature and is the current English translator of Gerbrand Bakker, Dimitri Verhulst, Annie M.G. Schmidt, and Nachoem M. Wijnberg. Colmer's poetry translations include selections of the work of Hugo Claus, Anna Enquist, Cees Nooteboom, Ramsey Nasr and Paul van Ostaijen.
My Struggle is a series of six autobiographical novels written by Karl Ove Knausgård and published between 2009 and 2011. The books cover his private life and thoughts, and unleashed a media frenzy upon its release, with journalists attempting to track down the mentioned members of his family. The series has sold half a million copies in Norway alone and has been published in 35 languages.