Another starred review

Two weeks before its publication day in the United States, The days of bluegrass love, the English translation by Emma Rault of my young adult novel De dagen van de bluegrassliefde, got another starred review. Some weeks ago Kirkus gave it a star, and this time it's Booklist that stars the book as well: reviewer Michael Cart writes 'superb novel', 'beautifully written,' 'unforgettable characters', and he adds this brilliant final line of the review: 'First published in the Netherlands, this book has become a classic in Europe. It should absolutely become the same here.' 

Read the full review here. I'm incredibly proud to have this book in English after 23 (!) years. Thank you, Levine Querido, for taking it under your wing. I hope it will do you proud.

Starry

May 17th: that will be the worldwide English publication date for The days of bluegrass love, the English translation by Emma Rault of my young adult novel De dagen van de bluegrassliefde. My American publisher in the United States made a beautiful new cover design, which we will use for the upcoming Dutch print run as well. 

I'm incredibly proud to have this book in English after 23 (!) years. De dagen van de bluegrassliefde was first published in 1999, and became a bit of a classic. The book is still in print. It's about the love story between Tycho from Holland and Oliver from Norway. In 2006 Ons derde lichaam ('Our third body') was published, which talks about Tycho in the year after his bluegrass love year, and in 2015 there was Oliver, the novel about Oliver in Norway two years prior to Bluegrass. Both these books will come out in a new cover design in The Netherlands this summer.

So - we still have to wait til the month of May. But last week the famous review site Kirkus Reviews already published its judgement. Read here what it said, but... we got a starred review! And this: 'Van de Vendel's writing is poetic, intensely emotional, and sensitively philosophical in this beautiful translation by Rault.' Wow!

New books travelling to the United States

Fantastic news: the new publishing house of Levine Querido, directed by the legendary Arthur Levine will devote a small segment of its program to books that were originally published by Querido Amsterdam. I'm really, really proud to announce that already in the company's first programs two of my books will be presented.

First of all the book I made with Marije Tolman will be translated. It's called Vosje which in the US-version will be Red Fox. David Colmer will be translating. This English edition succeeds the French, German, Russian and Italian editions.

But that's not the only book Levine Querido will publish. In the spring of 2012 there will be an English version of my Young Adult novel about the first passionate love between Tycho and Oliver, two eighteen year old European boys, who meet in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The book, which will be called Days of Bluegrass Love, (in Dutch: De dagen van de bluegrassliefde) was first published in 1999, with an updated version in 2015. Besides the United States the book will also be published in Latvia soon, by the way. I'm so thrilled by all this! Thanks to everyone involved.