Gerbrand Bakker Q & A

       Winstonsdad's Blog has a Gerbrand Bakker interview -- a Q & A with the author of The Twin and The Detour (now published in the US as Ten White Geese).
       I don't know that Dutch literature is quite so overlooked in English -- see also the Dutch books under review at the complete review -- and while none may have reached Nobel-aided Pamukian heights (as, notoriously, no Dutch author has won the Nobel -- yet) some, like Harry Mulisch, seem to have done reasonably well. (And, hey, Herman Koch's The Dinner just hit The New York Times' Bestsellers List for the fourth week (down to 12th place, from last week's 8th, but still ...) -- though you should all be reading the superior (though in the way it unfolds in some ways strikingly similar) Tirza.)
       Regardless, I'm thrilled to see this shout-out:

What is your favourite Dutch book not written by you ?

Het Bureau (The Office), written by J.J.Voskuil. A book that consists of seven parts, 5000 pages in total, about a man who works in an office for 35 years and is struggling with that. Only recently the first book was translated into German, it has not been translated into English.

       See, for example, the Dutch Foundation for Literature information page on Voskuil. I have long trembled before the Voskuil-volumes, sorely, sorely tempted ..... And while the German translation might prod me to dip my toes -- though that appears to be of the second volume, i.e. not the start of things -- I fear that, like local favorite A.F.Th. van der Heijden's multi-volume epics, we're unlikely to see an English translation anytime soon, or later.