Margriet de Moor / Margriet de Moor – Of Birds and People

Margriet de Moor – Of Birds and People

Margriet de Moor – Of Birds and People

Rights sold

  • Hanser Verlag (Germany)

 

Read a sample translation of Of Birds and People

 

About the book

One night a woman experiences the murder that during a malicious police interrogation she was persuaded she did in fact commit. The next morning she confesses. She is found guilty. Her confession lies at the centre of a web of events in which the prime motive is murder most foul, with the absence of the slightest hint of remorse. In the chapter ‘Beating her up was delightful’ Maria Lina avenges her mother. ‘Innocence’ shows us how the real murderer erased the murder from her life on the day it occurred. As so often in De Moor’s work, the tone of the novel is playful and serene and most of the characters live together lovingly but without any ambition to fathom each other. One odd exception is Rinus, whose job is to chase birds away from Schiphol Airport. Although she has never told him so, he both knows and approves of the fact that his wife Marie Lina will eventually take full revenge.

 

Of Birds and People, written in a language of biblical power, is a wonder—a wonder that art and literature rarely ever produce. ***** – De Limburger

The writer knows exactly what she’s doing. She delivers information in measured doses, giving away just enough to enable the reader to place pieces of the puzzle. Of Birds and People is a beautiful, sensitive novel. – HP De Tijd

De Moor seasons her prose with vital wisdoms about life and the human condition, never ceasing to remind me of the 19th century writer Stendhal, who also had a knack for that. With such comments she shifts unnoticed from intrigue to a meta-level, and that within just one or three sentences. – Vrij Nederland

[…] as much a second-generation story as a joyful tale of purification. **** – NRC Handelsblad

Author

Margriet de Moor (b. 1941) made her debut in 1988 with the short story collection Seen from Behind. It was followed by succesful novels including First Grey, Then White, Then Blue, which won her the AKO Literature Prize in 1992, The Virtuoso, The Kreuzer Sonata, The Storm, The Painter and the Girl and Mélodie d’amour. Her work has been translated into twenty-four languages.

© John Foley

Additional book information:

  • Novel
  • ISBN 978-90-234-9830-8
  • Number of pages: 251
  • World Rights: De Bezige Bij
  • Price: € 19,99
  • English sample available