These are the best new books according to NRC

1 Hilary Mantel: Beyond the black

In Beyond the black it is natural for the dead to seek out the living, and they are seldom benevolent. In a nonchalant home-garden-and-kitchen Gothic style, Mantel describes the oppressive household of professional medium Alison and her secretary Colette. It is a book full of horror and endless fantasy, which does not spare the British royal family.

Meridian, 559 pp. €32.50

2 Sebastian Barry: The Far Before Time

A retired detective has retreated to the Irish coast to a small home in the grounds of a Victorian castle. It seems a paragon of tranquility, but something is brewing in the man. In The distant time writer Sebastian Barry takes risks, his detective is sometimes sentimental and naive. But stylistically it remains unsurpassed: precise and compelling.

Querido, 264 pp. €23.99

3 Nicholas Mathieu: Connemara

Connemara, a versatile generational novel, masterfully shows where the anger of the yellow vests comes from. Although writer Nicolas Mathieu strikes a nostalgic tone, he touches on the consequences of the reorganizations that modern France is also suffering from. Employees lose their pride and work ethic, burnouts are on the rise. Mathieu, in his forties, Hélène has everything well organized, but still wakes up every morning with anger. What now?

Meulenhoff, 411 pp. €24.99

4 Drago Jancar: At the origin of the world

In At the origin of the world the little boy Danijel flees in his fantasy. He daydreams about the new downstairs neighbor, Lena. But then she gets adult suitors, and he loses himself. Was Drago Jancar’s earlier work still about betrayal and collaboration during the German occupation of Slovenia, in At the origin of the world the after-effects of this are discussed. The great suffering of war merges with the small pains of everyday life.

Schuyt. Querido, 240 pp. €23.99

5 Laura van der Haar: The pit

Nature is a primal force The ditch. It seems like a home garden and kitchen story about stuck lives and sultry adultery, but nature never escapes. Laura van der Haar immediately brings the stress of her grinding characters to the surface in her sentences. They slip from impotence to control, just as nature always moves from decomposition to regeneration and is reassuring and disturbing at the same time.

The Busy Bee, 285 pp. €23.99

1Hester de Boer: Camp Erika

Of Camp Erika Hester den Boer proves that everything has not yet been said about the Second World War. It is a history of history: it shows how we have dealt with the past. The titular camp was one of five German concentration camps in the Netherlands, and for a long time remained virtually unknown; nowadays there is a holiday park at the location. Den Boer searched the archives for her grandfather – and found him.

Atlas Contact, 288 pp. €22.99.

2 Olga Tokarczuk: The tender narrator

The work of the Polish Olga Tokarczuk is characterized by inexpressible feelings, as if her characters are aware of a multitude of things. In her collection of essays The tender narrator she discusses the complexity of the modern world, the ‘epidemic of indeterminacy’. She is looking for connection.

De Geus, 277 pp. €23.99

3Susan Neiman: Left is not woke

The book Left is not woke should not be an indictment of cancel culture, writes philosopher Susan Neiman on the opening pages. She takes a philosophical look at today’s left and wonders whether it would not be better to let go of the desire to acknowledge old suffering. How can a leftist keep his distance from the minefield of discussions about identity politics without complacently hiding behind his own privileges?

Lemniscate, 157 pp. €9.99

4 Frits van Oostrom: De Reynaert. Living with a medieval masterpiece

Who deals with the medieval text Van den vos Reynaerde input, there is a risk of being cheated. In De Reynaert. Living with a masterpiece, the new book by Frits van Oostrom, is teeming with stories about dedicated Reynaert researchers who go astray sooner rather than later. This book, the final salute to Van Oostrom’s academic career, is ambitious and even comprehensive.

Prometheus, 592 pp. € 35,-

5 Martin Bossenbroek: The Zanzibar Triangle

The Zanzibar Triangle is full of wonderful, exciting stories in which the cliffhangers are there for the taking. Writer Martin Bossenbroek does not explore the transatlantic slave trade, but slavery as it took place in eastern Africa. Bossenbroek chooses the perspective of those involved, above all diplomat John Kirk in Zanzibar. “The slave trade in the part of the world covered by this book began in the seventh century, was officially allowed well into the nineteenth century, and actually continues to this day.”

Athenaeum, 424 pp. €32.50