Read our sample translation of Daddy’s Hand
About the book
‘My mother preferred not to touch me. That I know for sure because she never touched me. She did not want that I touched her, and she did not want to touch me. If we kissed each other, when greeting, we kissed the air; that could do the least harm. A hug was out of the question.’
Only after landing in the hospital yet again in 2018 and looking death in the eye does Bart Chabot ask himself the question, having delayed it for so long, of who he really is. He digs through the memories of his youth which, as we can safely conclude, was extremely difficult. His parents routinely belittled and mentally and physically abused him to the point that one day he made the decision to break with them. From his hospital bed he recounts in unsparing and moving fashion a rich but troubled life. Daddy’s Hand is a piercingly but nonetheless humorously written book full of unexpected lightness.