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On Pentecost 2010, Tonio is hit by a car. He dies of his injuries that same day. Tonio is only 21. His parents are faced with the monstrous task of forging ahead with their lives in the knowledge that their only child will never come home again, never again stop by just to catch up, never again go out shopping with his mother and more.
About the author
Adri van der Heijden (b. 1951) is one of Holland’s greatest and most highly awarded authors. His œuvre consists mainly of two sagas: The Toothless Time and Homo Duplex. He has also written four other requiems, one of which about his father’s death, His Father’s Ashes.
Tonio won three of Holland’s most prestigious literary awards: the Constantijn Huygens Prize, the 2012 Libris Literature Prize, and the 2012 NS Reader’s Award for the Best Book of the Year. It has been a major bestseller in Holland and in Germany, and this edition marks its first appearance in English.Jonathan Reeder, a native of New York and longtime resident of Amsterdam, enjoys a dual career as a literary translator and performing musician. Alongside his work as a professional bassoonist, he translates opera libretti and essays on classical music, as well as contemporary Dutch fiction. Literary translations include Conny Braam’s WWI novel The Cocaine Salesman, Peter Buwalda’s bestseller Bonita Avenue and the comic thriller A Sleepless Summer by Bram Dehouck.
Summary
On Pentecost 2010, Tonio is hit by a car. He dies of his injuries that same day. Tonio is only 21. His parents are faced with the monstrous task of forging ahead with their lives in the knowledge that their only child will never come home again, never again stop by just to catch up, never again go out shopping with his mother and more.
Foreword
Winner of the 2012 Libris Literature Prize, the Dutch Booker - 200,000 copies sold in Holland.
Additional text
'Recording the death [of his son] becomes both a duty to Tonio and part of the struggle of grieving, and van der Heijden finds he cannot not write about it … these two strands are woven together skilfully, and beautifully at times.'
