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LIFE IN BLAASHOEK WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN
Seasons come and go in provincial Blaashoek, where the town’s superficial harmony is upended by the arrival of a wind farm—a blessing for some, a curse for others. The irritating hum of the turbines keeps butcher Herman Bracke, known far and wide for his delicious ‘summer pâté’, awake at night. He falls prey to a deadly fatigue and gradually loses control over his work, setting off a series of blood-curdling events with fatal consequences for the townspeople. Dehouck’s characteristic black humor and concise, punchy prose make for a refreshing take on the modern thriller.
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Praise for Sleepless Summer
‘Dehouck creates a melancholic and wistful atmosphere in a world dominated by dark egocentrism. Uncanny, original and haunting’
Flanders Literature
‘Following the lives of various inhabitants of a sleepy village who, increasingly rapidly, turn their surroundings into a living hell, is one of Stephen King’s trademarks. Dehouck is better at it—without involving the occult or taking up more pages than necessary’
NRC Handelsblad
‘Dehouck obviously loves the written word and manipulates it with impressive precision. It is a small miracle how he brings to life over twenty characters in barely two hundred pages’
Het Parool
‘A gem. With Sleepless Summer, this Flemish writer proves that his award-winning book De minzame moordenaar (‘The Mild-Mannered Murderer’) wasn’t just a one-off success’
Algemeen Dagblad
‘A worthy successor to Reservoir Dogs’
Knack
‘Sleepless Summer is a surprising book that exudes an atmosphere of melancholy. The minute descriptions of the events in the village lead almost unnoticed to a furious finale’
Thrillerweb
‘Masterly. Definitely worthy of the Golden Noose prize’
Vrij Nederland
‘A tragicomic novel about a small community that is increasingly disrupted’
MPO Books
‘It’s like the blackest version of Midsomer Murders you could possibly imagine, infused with the dark, psychological tinge of the finest Scandinavian crime fiction. I loved it’
Raven Crime Reads
‘A compact and original story, with a heart-stopping denouement. Dehouck writes sparingly and concisely. With the right words in the right place, he only needs a few pen strokes to get to the heart of his story. A beautiful book, a relief’
JURY, GOLDEN NOOSE AWARDS
‘In this book everything is exactly right and everything is the result of something else. Sleepless Summer is really well written and equally well conceived’
De Lees Fabriek
‘The language is compact and effective; this is a book that never bores. A beautiful, compact, universal, and exciting story about how a seemingly insignificant occurrence can lead to unprecedented disaster. Bram Dehouck once again proves his talent with this exciting and often comical novel’
Misdaadromans.nl
‘An incredible story in which everything is perfect’
Thrillers Leestafel
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BRAM DEHOUCK (Belgium) was the first author ever to win both the Golden Noose and the Shadow Award, the two most prestigious prizes for Dutch crime writing, for the same novel: De minzame moordenaar (‘The Mild-Mannered Murderer’). Sleepless Summer, his second novel, was awarded the Golden Noose and the Knack Hercule Poirot Public Prize, and was nominated for the Crimezone Best Thriller Award.
JONATHAN REEDER, a native of New York and longtime resident of Amsterdam, enjoys a dual career as a literary translator and performing musician. Alongside his work as a professional bassoonist he translates opera libretti and essays on classical music, as well as contemporary Dutch fiction by authors including Peter Buwalda, Adri van der Heijden, and the forthcoming How I Found the Talent for Living by Rodaan Al-Galidi. His recent translations include Rivers by Martin Michael Driessen (winner of the 2016 ECI Literature Prize) and The Lonely Funeral by Maarten Inghels and F. Starik.
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AUTHOR
‘It’s about a small community, and a narrow-mindedness that gets disrupted by external factors. A small annoyance that grows into something insurmountable. The atmosphere in a book is important to me, I have lived in such a small village myself and that, of course, influenced me when I wrote the novel. And I like to use characters that are a bit over the top.’
TRANSLATOR
´The absurd notion of a wind turbine igniting a comedy of unfettered bloodletting was, for this big-city American, a delightful peek into the mentality of small-town Flanders. While a translator of humor might be tempted to lay it on extra thick, the author eases the job by making each character credible and crazy at the same time. The story’s modern elements—a strapping African immigrant and a teenager trawling internet sex sites—were fun to juxtapose against the buttoned-up spite of the more traditional villagers, allowing a wide range of dialogue.´
PUBLISHER
‘In Sleepless Summer Bram Dehouck combines his talent for suspense as a thriller writer with his ability to create psychologically accomplished characters. And I just love his fine, dark sense of humor.’
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BRAM DEHOUCK
Sleepless Summer
Translated from the Dutch by Jonathan Reeder
WORLD EDITIONS
New York, London, Amsterdam
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Published in the USA in 2019 by World Editions LLC, New York
Published in the UK in 2015 by World Editions Ltd., London
World Editions
New York/London/Amsterdam
Copyright © Bram Dehouck, 2011
English translation copyright © Jonathan Reeder, 2015
Cover image © Mischa Keijser
Author’s portrait © Charlie de Keersmaecker
This book
