UITGELEZEN

‘This is my last book,’ Julian Barnes announces in the first chapter of 'Departure(s)'. Whether he will keep that promise remains to be seen – let us hope not, but what is certain is that Barnes’ latest book is a magnificent finale to a rich, multifaceted and acclaimed oeuvre. 'The Sense of an Ending' tells the story of two old friends of Barnes: Stephen and Jean, a couple who found each other forty years ago, lost each other and only found each other again decades later. The Sense of an Ending is about the unreliable telescope that is our memory, about everything we want to remember but cannot, and everything we want to forget but cannot. Above all, it is a delightful insight into Barnes' own life as a writer.

Another wonderful writer's life is that of Joke van Leeuwen. Thankfully, she has not yet hung up her career. However, she did feel it was time for a self-portrait in language, and we couldn't agree with her more. 'Plooi u in tweeën' (Fold Yourself in Half) is the story of almost five (!) decades of writing on the edge of everything: Dutch and Flemish, being a woman and being a writer, poetry, prose, books for children, books for adults, books for everyone. She won't say so herself, but with this memoir, Van Leeuwen, in all her virtuoso linguistic delight and acumen, irrefutably demonstrates that she has long been one of our most important writers.

The last book on the table is also about forgetting, remembering, the importance of language and literature, but it is of a completely different order than the personal books by Barnes and Van Leeuwen. Eva Meijer's Een woord voor (A Word For) is a novel that disappears before your eyes. You have to see it to believe it. From the perspective of two young lovers, Mik and Uma, we read a blood-curdling story in which more and more words from the Dutch language disappear and have to be replaced by words that do not mean exactly the same thing. It starts with the words “careless”, “money” and “fuck”, but it doesn't stop there. A love story and a dystopian vision of a possible very near future; a true feat (and if that word were to disappear, a bravura tour, a heroic stunt, an exploit...).