In 2012, together with Sanneke van Hassel, she put together a substantial anthology of international stories called Naar de stad (To the City, 2012), and in 2013, in cooperation with artist Klaas Verplancke, she published the novella Tirol inferno, written in iambic pentameter. It is made up of fifteen stories linked by both subject and characters, about people who think they know more than they really do. Her short-story collection Veronderstellingen (Assumptions, 2012) was extremely well-received and was nominated for the BNG New Literature Prize. Verbeke also writes columns, film scripts, and plays, and has a great love of short stories.

Her most recent novel, Vissen redden (Saving Fish, 2009), was nominated for several literary awards. Her second novel, Reus (Giant, 2006), and her collection of short stories Groener gras (Greener Grass, 2007) attracted widespread attention with their surprising realism and light yet bizarre and absurd humor. 1976, Belgium) became famous overnight with her successful first novel Slaap! (Sleep!, 2003). Sleep! is a convincing novel in which the author uses the complex personalities of her characters to pen a strikingly insightful vision of life and its experiences.Annelies Verbeke (b.

Most surprising of all is the tone of the book: simultaneously laconic, spare and poetic, with a dash of irony, and nevertheless brimming with genuine sympathy. Annelies Verbeke uses powerful, well-chosen metaphors to underpin her story and she is penetrating in rendering her characters’ loneliness, impotence and feelings of insignificance. At the same time they realise that, with their expectations and longings, the superficial outside world will not satisfy them. Ze probeert van alles om een paar uur rust te. This device allows Verbeke to bring their backgrounds fully to the fore as well as the dramatic confrontation of both their lives.Īnnelies Verbeke writes about people one cannot help but feel sympathy for, so poignant is their yearning for a normal life. Read 111 reviews from the worlds largest community for readers. Verbeke relates Maya’s story with Benoit’s, alternating their own interpretation and version of events, chapter by chapter. Back outside again, the bewildered couple is wafted back into each other’s vicinity, two outcasts tending each other’s wounds. Thanks to their clumsy expressions of despair, Maya ends up in hospital and Benoit in a psychiatric institution where they each encounter other unfortunate loners.

Slaap! by Annelies Verbeke