Faber to publish the bestselling Dutch sensation, The Discomfort of the Evening, by 28-year-old Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

Faber is delighted to announce Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s unforgettable debut novel, The Discomfort of the Evening. Former Creative Director Lee Brackstone acquired World English rights in a three-way auction from Atlas Contact in the Netherlands.

The radical first novel by a celebrated young poet, The Discomfort of the Evening was a bestseller in the Netherlands where it won the prestigious ANV Debut Prize.

Set on a dairy farm, it follows a young girl called Jas whose world ruptures when her brother dies in an ice-skating accident, plunging the family into a darkness that threatens to derail them all. Translated by Michele Hutchison, the novel will be Faber’s lead literary debut in the Spring, publishing on 19 March.

Faber are working closely with the Dutch Foundation for Literature on their New Dutch Writing campaign to bring the author on a UK tour.

Ella Griffiths, Assistant Editor, said:

The Discomfort of the Evening is something special. Rijneveld has created a world of language unlike any other: her wild, striking imagery in all its horror and beauty will be imprinted on my mind forever. I can’t remember the last time there has been so much in-house excitement about a debut novel – and we can’t wait for others to experience it.

Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (b. 1991) grew up in a Reformed farming family in North Brabant before moving to Utrecht. One of the most exciting new voices in Dutch literature, her debut poetry collection, Calfskin, was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize in 2015, with the newspaper de Volkskrant naming her literary talent of the year. Her bestselling debut novel, The Discomfort of the Evening (2018), was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize and won the ANV Debut Prize. Alongside her writing career, Rijneveld works on a dairy farm.

Foreign publishers for the novel so far include Suhrkamp in Germany, Nutrimenti in Italy, Libella in France, and GIMM-Young in Korea, with Arabic rights sold to Al Arabi and Spanish to Planeta Temas de Hoy.