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BEAUTIFUL, HAPPY PEOPLE? NO.
Lucy is the most popular girl in the local elementary school of an idyllic Dutch housing estate. When a bizarre crime rocks her world and sends her mother to prison, Lucy is turned into an outcast and her childhood becomes an ordeal of constant, vicious bullying. After her mother’s release, Lucy’s family decides to escape and make a clean start on a rugged Scottish island. But even here, in this remote corner of the world, Lucy’s past holds a firm grip on her. Told in the alternating voices of the bullies and Lucy, this darkly atmospheric and emotionally-gripping story is part family drama and part mystery.
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Praise for The Darkness that Divides Us
‘Just a remarkable book. Haunting characters, amazing voice, propulsive plot. I hope we see a lot more from Dorrestein. Count me among her fans’
KAREN JOY FOWLER
‘A stunning mixture of many genres. The criminal story provides popular, psychological, folkloric, parodic, and psychological hints of secret codes to solve the murder case’
American Book Review
‘An interesting study in how we intuitively know things aren’t right and how we cope with the lies and subsequent trauma; we are not so much in control of events, as we like to think we are’
The Bookseller
‘The plot holds tightly together, tempting the reader further to uncover the secrets hidden in later pages. Highly recommended’
Dutch News
‘What particularly appeals—and where her strength lies—is the drive that Dorrestein gives her characters. Their survival spirit and courage are unlimited, and their loneliness is therefore all the more tangible’
De Volkskrant
‘A stunning mix of many genres’
American Book Review
‘A beautifully written family drama, with a hint of mystery—the writing is darkly atmospheric with an intense construction that works well and hooks you right in’
Liz Loves Books
‘A complex and unusual story that, whilst heart-rending, is never sentimental. Thought-provoking and engaging: a recommended read’
Never Imitate
‘A painful adventure that requires courage. Dorrestein tells tough stories without embellishment; full of wry, shocking details about family suffering, about child abuse, rape, illness and death. That literature can produce such a physical reaction in the reader is a sign of Dorrestein’s strength’
Vrij Nederland
‘Dorrestein knows how to chill her readers with tragedy and then melt their hearts with forgiveness.’
SUSAN VREELAND
‘A real thriller, with a surprising reveal at the end’
De Tijd
‘Classic Dorrestein’
Spits
‘The Darkness that Divides Us is en epic tale about a girl fighting for a bit of individuality, free from her mother, free from her father, but above all free from “the group” that binds us. This is a book about ourselves’
De Limburger
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RENATE DORRESTEIN (1954-2018) is a best-selling author who occupies a unique position within Dutch literature. An extraordinary storyteller, known for her unsentimental depiction of children and their flawed families, Dorrestein’s impish humor offsets the darkness of her subjects. Her books have been nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the AKO Literature Prize, and the Libris Literature Prize. Her breakthrough novel A Heart of Stone was a Barnes & Noble ‘Discover Great New Writers’ selection. Her novels have been made into films and translated into fifteen languages.
HESTER VELMANS was born in Amsterdam, and lived in five different countries while growing up, before finally settling in the US. She is the author of the popular children’s books Isabel of the Whales and Jessaloup’s Song. The recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship in 2014, she was previously awarded the Vondel Prize for her translation of Renate Dorrestein’s A Heart of Stone. Her most recent novel Slipper was published in April 2018.
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AUTHOR
‘I want to know what it means to be human, how we can remain a decent person under all circumstances. So I read stories; when you read a book something changes in you. Books have the potential to confront us with things we really know, but do not dare to face. A book has to unsettle, because anxiety causes something, it loosens up things hidden inside us. And this is good.’
TRANSLATOR
‘This book presented two irresistible challenges for a translator. The first: how to convey in English the idiosyncratic, plural voice, the “we” of the amorphous gang of children who turn from being Lucy’s followers to her relentless tormentors. It isn’t until you are charged with translating that slyly subversive child’s view of the world that you understand what a tour de force it was on the author’s part. The second: when the action moves to the Outer Hebrides, I had to take Renate’s Dutch version of the local dialect and deliver it in an actual Scottish brogue, which required some sleight of hand and a fair bit of audacity.’
PUBLISHER
‘Renate Dorrestein masterfully evokes the inner thoughts and feelings of children, as if she herself never ceased to be one. Her characters are lonely and vulnerable, yet at the same time they are courageous survivors. I feel for them as much as I admire her work.’
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RENATE DORRESTEIN
The Darkness that Divides Us
Translated from the Dutch by Hester Velmans
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 2015 by World Editions Ltd., London
World Editions
New York/London/Amsterdam
Copyright © Renate Dorrestein, 2003
English translation copyright © Hester Velmans, 2015
Cover image © Hellen van Meene
Author’s portrait © Frank Ruiter
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 978-1-64286-014-6
ISBN E-book 978-1-64286-033-7
First published as Het duister dat ons scheidt in the Netherlands in 2003 by Uitgeverij Contact, Amsterdam
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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