Afterlight
by Jaap Robben
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Pub Date May 07 2024 | Archive Date Apr 30 2024
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Description
"With its tight sentences and a fast pace, Afterlight moves like detective fiction. It’s a poignant novel in which a single, pregnant woman is mistreated in her conservative society; she remains resilient and determined to honor her baby’s memory." —Foreword Reviews
The young free-spirited florist Frieda grew up in a strictly Catholic environment in the 1960s. When she steps onto a frozen river on a late winter afternoon, little does she know that everything is about to change for her. On the ice she meets the married Otto. They experience a love that begins stormy and ends fatefully: Frieda becomes pregnant - a scandal in the world in which she moves. And so she must never be the mother of her secret child. For decades she kept her memories of this episode in her life to herself. But the grief for the lost child remains, despite the later marriage, despite the son she still has. At the age of eighty-one, Frieda is suddenly alone again. The silent sorrow returns with force. Only then does she dare to face her story – and to share it. With Afterlight, inspired by true events, Robben not only pulls back the veil on Frieda’s story, but also shines a light on the experiences of countless women between the 1950s and 1980s. The result is an impressive story about buried female trauma, caused by society, organized religion and the dominant social mores.
Advance Praise
“Jaap Robben steers well clear of sentimentality in this delicately wrought book about loss (…) and once again shows himself to be a master of short, restrained sentences.” —Trouw
"Tender and sensitive. Masterful how Jaap Robben describes Frieda's life." —NPO Radio 4 Book of the Week
“Robben knows how to arouse emotion with his stories about outcasts.” —The Standard
"Robben once again shows himself to be a master of short, restrained sentences that keep sentimentality at bay. Afterlight is an impressive and delicate book about loss." —Fidelity
“In Afterlight, Robben tells the difficult story of many women about a time that is not that far behind us. It produces a beautiful novel that offers compassion.” —Dagblad van het Noorden
“There is not a sentence that does not shine or is charged in Jaap Robben's astonishing novel about lifelong suffering. Once you have read the impressive Afterlight, it is impossible to forget the story.” —Het Parool
Praise for Summer Brother, Longlisted for the International Booker Prize
“A deeply humane novel centered on a disabled man, his heroic younger brother and an unreliable, partly criminal father living on an all but derelict site. The book is generous to all its flawed characters, is beautifully written, and humanizes lives of abject poverty on the edge of squalor and disaster.” ―INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE, jury report
“Dutch author Jaap Robben’s second novel shows us the shedding of innocence. Summer Brother, translated by David Doherty, shakes out over a hot summer, during that potent lull when characters so splendidly boil, burst and bloom…Summer Brother grapples with the consequences of carelessness and the abuse of power and trust, even if the violation is unintentional…Robben is wonderful at drawing characters with just a few deliberate strokes…Like a photographer shooting a portrait, Robben captures his subjects in Summer Brother in a focused close-up.” —New York Times
“I just ADORED the novel Summer Brother. Bravo, bravo is what I have to say. It kind of saved me in a way.” ―Elizabeth Strout, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
“It’s an impressive novel: a deceptively simple story of lives at the margin, with a child’s viewpoint perfectly pitched and sustained, it is cleanly written and powerfully imagined. Robben deals with all kinds of inflammable material, and does it with such tact and understanding.” —Hilary Mantel, bestselling author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies
“The central premise of Summer Brother, Jaap Robben’s evocative coming-of-age novel, longlisted for the International Booker prize, is that love can thrive in the unlikeliest of places…It is easy to forget this is a work in translation, so deft is David Doherty’s rendition. Robben depicts the limitations of a dysfunctional family but also celebrates empathy as a force for good.” ―The Observer
Marketing Plan
- Publicity outreach to women’s and parenting media outlets
- By the author of International Man Booker longlistee Summer Brother
- Advance galleys and digital reader copies
- Digital assets including author & translator video
- Signed book plates available
- National TV, radio, print, and online review campaign
- Consumer-facing national advertising campaign on Shelf Awareness, Lithub, NPR, Foreword Reviews, Goodreads
- Virtual or in-person author events
- Book club discussion guide
- Bookstore co-op available
- Excerpt placement
- Social-media campaign & Goodreads giveaway
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781642861471 |
| PRICE | $19.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 360 |
Available on NetGalley
Average rating from 8 members
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General Fiction (Adult), Multicultural Interest, Women's Fiction