A writer who doesn’t want to be the center of attention is in danger of ending up in the center of attention again.
Monday evening hear Anjet Daanje from Groningen or her novel The song of stork and dromedary is awarded the thirtieth Libris Literature Prize, an award for the best novel of 2022.
This will take place in Amsterdam and will be announced live by jury chairman Beatrice de Graaf during a television broadcast of the current affairs program News hour . The prize is awarded in two. Alexander Rinnooy Kan presents a check worth 50,000 euros, and State Secretary Gunay Uslu presents a bronze medallion.
One of six contenders
Daanje’s book is one of the six contenders. The others are Man without driver’s license from Oek de Jong, True descriptions from the permafrost from Donald Niedekker, People are everywhere from Yves Petry, The event from Peter Terrin and Intermediate by Peter Zantingh.
The cards are best for Daanje. The song of stork and dromedary is the most discussed, most acclaimed and best-selling book of the six nominees. She previously received the Boekenbon Literatuurprijs for the same novel. Translations into German, French, Italian and Czech are in progress.
Named a winner by almost everyone
In previews, the book is mentioned by almost everyone as the winner. A few put forward Donald Niedekker’s novel. About Man without driver’s license it is said of Oek de Jong that it should never have been nominated because it would not be a novel. The Libris jury stated that it thought otherwise.
Daanje tells us The song of stork and dromedary multiple stories, starting with Emily Brontë-inspired Eliza May Drayden. According to the Libris jury talks about ‘a kaleidoscopic novel of great class’. “A fascinating literary quest that takes the reader from 19th century Yorkshire, through the First World War in Picardy and then back to England, to end in 21st century Groningen.”
After four novels in Amsterdam on a side track
The great success is part of a remarkable writing career. Daanje (1965), born in Wijster, made his debut in 1993 at the Drenthe publishing house Servo with the novel Piano music in the rain followed by The blind photographer at Kwadraat publishers in Utrecht and in 2001 made the switch to Thomas Rap publishers in Amsterdam. There she ended up sidetracked after four novels.
In 2016 she found with JL shelter at the Passage publishing house of Anton Scheepstra in Groningen – the book was little noticed. That also seemed to be the case with the novel at first The Remembered Soldier to happen, but after a nomination for the 2020 Libris Literature Prize, the tide turned. Daanje won two prizes with it, the Bordewijk Prize and the prize for the Best Groningen Book, and then surprised with the ambitious The song of stork and dromedary.
Daanje rarely goes public and rarely responds to interview requests and invitations. For example, last year she ignored a request from a literary agent to travel to New York to discuss a possible translation into English. Also thanked for the nomination for the Flemish literary prize De Boon, because she did not want to go to Ghent. She preferred to stay in Groningen.