Discomfort of Evening The WINNER OF THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020

*WINNER OF THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST BOOKS OF 2020**A NYT CRITICS' TOP BOOK OF 2020*'One of the best debut novels I have ever read. Shockingly good ... A classic.' Max Porter'Haunting . . . reminded me a lot of Iain Bank. It's incredible that it's a debut.' Douglas Stuart. The sensational Dutch bestseller'Exceptional' (Financial Times)'Exhilarating' (Independent)'Luminous' (Observer)'Beautifully wild' (Guardian)'An earthy and irreverent new voice thrillingly uninhibited' (New York Times). I asked God if he please couldn't take my brother Matthies instead of my rabbit. 'Amen.' . Ten-year-old Jas has a unique way of experiencing her universe the feeling of udder ointment on her skin as protection against harsh winters the texture of green warts like capers on migrating toads the sound of 'blush words' that aren't in the Bible. But when a tragic accident ruptures the family her curiosity warps into a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies - unlocking a darkness that threatens to derail them all.. A bestselling sensation in the Netherlands Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's radical debut novel is studded with images of wild violent beauty a world of language unlike any other exquisitely captured in Michele Hutchison's translation.. 'THE MOST TALKED ABOUT DEBUT NOVEL OF 2020 ALREADY' [Dazed & Confused]ONE OF VOGUE'S TOP FIVE DEBUTS OF 2020ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S HIGHLIGHTS OF 2020ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S TOP TEN BEST NEW BOOKS IN TRANSLATION|Lucas Rijneveld (b. 1991) grew up in a Reformed farming family in North Brabant before moving to Utrecht. One of the greatest new voices in Dutch literature his first poetry collection Calf's Caul was awarded the C. Buddingh' Prize for best poetry debut in 2015 with the newspaper de Volkskrant naming them literary talent of the year. In 2018 Atlas Contact published his first novel The Discomfort of Evening which won the prestigious ANV Debut Prize and was a national bestseller. The UK edition won the Booker International Prize 2020. Alongside his writing career Rijneveld works on a dairy farm.Michele Hutchison was born in the UK and has lived in Amsterdam since 2004. After a period working as an editor she became a literary translator from Dutch and recently translated Lucas Rijneveld's The Discomfort of Evening which won the Booker International Prize 2020.|*SENSATIONAL WINNER OF THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020* 'One of the best debut novels I have ever read. Shockingly good ... A classic.' Max Porter'Haunting . . . reminded me a lot of Iain Banks. It's incredible that it's a debut.' Douglas Stuart'Exceptional' (Financial Times)'Exhilarating' (Independent)'Luminous' (Observer)'Beautifully wild' (Guardian)'An earthy and irreverent new voice thrillingly uninhibited' (New York Times)I asked God if he please couldn't take my brother Matthies instead of my rabbit. 'Amen.' Ten-year-old Jas has a unique way of experiencing her universe: the feeling of udder ointment on her skin as protection against harsh winters; the texture of green warts like capers on migrating toads; the sound of 'blush words' that aren't in the Bible. But when a tragic accident ruptures the family her curiosity warps into a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies - unlocking a darkness that threatens to derail them all.A bestselling sensation in the Netherlands Lucas Rijneveld's radical debut novel is studded with images of wild violent beauty: a world of language unlike any other exquisitely captured in Michele Hutchison's translation.ONE OF VOGUE'S TOP FIVE DEBUTS ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S HIGHLIGHTS ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S TOP TEN BEST NEW BOOKS IN TRANSLATION|*WINNER OF THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020*: this sensational Dutch bestseller is 'a classic' (Max Porter) with new novel MY HEAVENLY FAVOURITE.|One of the best debut novels I have ever read. Shockingly good. Utterly unforgettable ... A classic.|Haunting . . . reminded me a lot of Iain Banks. It's incredible that it's a debut.|Few reading experiences are more thrilling than a first novel that feels urgent and original. In the past decade Teju Cole and Garth Greenwell both had these qualities ... As exhilarating a debut as I can remember.|Intensely raw shockingly graphic and memorable ... Rijneveld has created something exceptional.|Translator Michele Hutchison deftly switches between registers and gives Jas a strong unique voice ... Poetic mannered language realistic bleakness and descent into surreal darkness ... Compelling ... Fascinating characters and themes.|Translated by Michele Hutchison Rijneveld's writing is raw and impassive though often grotesquely vivid ... A pretty remarkable debut. Confident in its brutality yet contained rather than gratuitous it introduces readers to both a memorably off-key narrator and a notable new talent.|An earthy and irreverent new voice thrillingly uninhibited in style and subject matter ... The novel teems - I say this admiringly - with all the filth of life ... Even now my blood jumps to remember certain images ... I went to it every day [with] gratitude ... The spaciousness of Rijneveld's imagination comes as terror and solace.|The most talked-about debut novel of 2020 ... Absolutely compelling ... Brutal and vivid.|An unsettling exploration of a family dealing with a sudden death . . . A strong debut. Rijneveld's poetic prose eloquently translated by Michele Hutchison clashes and rattles against the horrors it describes a constant fight between terror and beauty. It is a novel that does its best to make sure you won't forget it anytime soon.|Rijneveld takes us into the bleak Dutch countryside into a family's grief and inside the mind of a girl who is in hiding from her own life. This beautiful strange novel is filled with sentences that stopped me dead.|Astoundingly accomplished ... Shudderingly vivid ... A stunning novel that does what a child's-eye narrative should do: reveal that in the face of adult folly a ten-year-old can show us the world as it really is.|A visceral portrait of a devout family dealing with grief and the result is both haunting and beautiful.|The electricity in this book comes from the use of that blank narrative style to deliver a sort of Grand Guignol grotesquerie.|Marked by intense poignant imagery and the stirring narration of middle daughter Jas Lucas has done something quite extraordinary with this astonishing (and really quite disgusting) novel which will stay in the mind long after reading.