Praise for Afterlight
"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
“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
“Intriguing” —de Volkskrant
“Nice, spot on” —NRC Handelsblad
“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
“Robben gives voice to a deep-seated feminism in the form of his powerful protagonist. As a reader, you find yourself breathing a sigh of relief knowing that nowadays we live in a more just and equitable society — although a look back over your shoulder also doubles as a word of warning about the future.” —Humo
"One of the best books of the year" —Mezza Book of the month
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. It reminded me of Claire Keegan’s novella Foster, which has a girl narrator of a similar age, and is an outstanding book. But the challenges are greater here, as 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
“A sensitive yet unsentimental depiction of poverty and disability from the perspective of an abled character.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“The book’s language is precise and forthright as Brian observes, and portrays in stark terms, the intense, awkward, and lovely actions of those around him. Sharp exchanges reveal characters who are witty and earnest in equal measure. Summer Brother is a harrowing novel about dysfunctional family dynamics and the universal awkwardness of being a teenager.” ―Foreword Reviews
“A tragic tale of generational dysfunction” ―Publishers Weekly
“Summer Brother is a work of rare intricacy that warrants to be read with all the seriousness one can muster.” ―World Literature Today
