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Flanders, 1915. David Verbocht, sentenced to death as a deserter, stands before the firing squad and looks back on his short and turbulent life. As a young man, David was sent away by his parents, after a tragic accident in the family, to become a schoolteacher in the remote village of Elverdinge. There he develops a special bond with a sensitive young student, along with feelings for the boy’s mother. Until fate strikes again and the history of loss and guilt seems to repeat itself. With His Name Is David Vantoortelboom has written a beautifully atmospheric novel about love and tenderness in the face of brutality and war, in a sober and intimate style that shimmers with a restrained sensuality.
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Praise for His Name Is David
‘Beautifully written. Vantoortelboom strikes a powerfully emotive chord’
Irish Examiner
‘Stories of people with whom you can really identify’
Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant
‘Vantoortelboom’s evocative prose plunges the reader immediately into the Flanders of WWI’
Trouw
‘A book that leaves a deep impression. From the first page on, it has you in its grip. Containing all the big themes, it is moving, endearing, and beautifully written’
Book of the Month, DWDD BOOKSELLERS PANEL
‘Intelligent and well-composed’
De Morgen
‘Vantoortelboom writes like a true Thoreau about the almost magical beauty of nature: a nature that also provides him with the parallels that are so important running through this book’
Knack Focus
‘A book to get excited about’
NRC Handelsblad
‘His Name Is David crawls deep under your skin and nestles there’
Humo
‘Skillfully constructed—weaving action, introspection and flashback’
De Groene Amsterdammer
A bestselling tale of forbidden love set in World War I Flanders
THE GUARDIAN
‘The first pages are immediately of a devastating intensity’
8Weekly
‘A discovery. The images that the writer evokes are so strong that you instantly feel connected as a reader. A beautiful story, compelling and moving. Highly recommended’
INGRID HOOGERVORST in Tros Nieuwsshow
‘Compelling and strongly composed: a beautifully written novel’
Visie
‘A novel written in beautiful Flemish about guilt and innocence, responsibility and choice, and the good and evil sides of people’
BOEK
‘Every single word rings true. In just a few sentences Vantoortelboom outlines a situation, creates atmosphere, evokes feelings. In an incredibly well-constructed story, he keeps adding stones until a carefully crafted house is born—a beautiful work in book form’
Nederlands Dagblad
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JAN VANTOORTELBOOM, originally a teacher, grew up in Elverdinge, a small village in Belgium. In 2011 he debuted with the prize-winning novel De verzonken jongen (‘The Sunken Boy’), a coming-of-age tale about a family riddled with mysteries set against the backdrop of World War I. His second novel, His Name Is David, surpassed the success of his debut and cemented his position in Dutch literature. It was chosen as Book of the Month by an influential Dutch talk show, and has sold over 30,000 copies in the Netherlands and Belgium.
VIVIEN D. GLASS is a literary translator from Dutch and German to English. She was born in Switzerland to Irish and Swiss parents and moved to the Netherlands in 1995, where she completed a Bachelor’s degree at the ITV University of Applied Sciences for Translation and Interpreting. She currently lives and works in the beautiful medieval city of Amersfoort, and enjoys attending translation and poetry workshops whenever her schedule allows. Her published translations include works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s verse, and more.
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AUTHOR
‘I wanted to write a book about the place where I grew up (Elverdinge), but set in the WWI period. The village was on the frontline and a lot of it was destroyed. This is a book about second and even third chances in a lifetime, and how, even with the best of intentions, you can screw them all up. It is also about guilt, and about having your own thoughts about the world around you.’
TRANSLATOR
‘Translating His Name Is David was like being plunged into a completely different world—that of David, his youth in rural Flanders before the First World War, his life as a teacher and soldier, and his fruitless attempts to make amends for the tragic death of his devoted, inquisitive baby brother. A moving and enriching experience.’
PUBLISHER
‘What struck me most about this beautifully crafted novel, was the intensity of its storytelling. Jan Vantoortelboom manages to create a universe full of tenderness, confusion, and loss. He suggests more then he explains, leaving the interpretation up to the reader, as only the best novels are able to do.’
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JAN VANTOORTELBOOM
His Name Is David
Translated from the Dutch
by Vivien D. Glass
WORLD EDITIONS
New York, London, Amsterdam
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Published in the USA in 2019 by World Editions LLC, New York
Published in the UK in 2016 by World Editions Ltd., London
World Editions
New York/London/Amsterdam
Copyright © Jan Vantoortelboom, 2014
English translation copyright © Vivien D. Glass, 2016
Author’s portrait © Mark van den Brink
Cover image © private collection, WESTHOEK VERBEELDT
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data is available
ISBN Trade paperback 978-1-64286-012-2
ISBN E-book 978-1-64286-031-3
First published as Meester Mitraillette in the Netherlands in 2014 by Atlas Contact
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.
The translation of this book is funded by the Flemish Literature Fund (Vlaams Fonds voor de Letteren - www.flemishliterature.be)
All rights reserved.