The Boy

A GRIPPING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER of parenthood and loss, bullying and revenge! Kito grows up as the only child of his adoptive parents. After a class outing his lifeless body is discovered washed up on the beach and his mother is out for revenge.

'I was captivated by the emotive story and eager to discover the outcome and would definitely look to read more Dutch literature after this gem of a book.' Rhianon Holley, [ BUZZ.] 'This is a powerful and convincing study of how the real victims of death are often the living left behind' [The Irish Times.] The Boy is beautifully-written in elegant and precise prose. It's one of those books you don't rush and make it comfortable for you to take your time. And it's a very intimate look inside the human psyche. - Jill Murphy, [The Book Bag] 'If you're looking for emotional rawness and psychological complexity, then prepare to be engrossed. [...] This is a brilliant and devastating novel with much to debate' [Lizzy Siddal] 'Immediacy which is both effective and discomfiting. [...] This is a deeply disturbing book, not a conventional crime novel with a cut and dried resolution, but a commentary on how we treat people different from the rest of us all wrapped up in a gripping, wrenching piece of storytelling.' [A Life in Books] 'Versteeg has created a character as old as literature. ... This is a powerful and convincing study of how the real victims of death are often the living left behind.' Eileen Battersby, (The Irish Times) 'Heartbreaking, free from voyeurism, and so wonderfully written that one can hardly put the book down' (Elle ,Germany)'This is a literary construct which is presented with such excitement and panache that it transforms fiction into something believable' (Arie Storm Het Parool). Versteeg carries her readers organically along towards dark human desires towards muddy ground where complexity and ambiguity reign, to where the monster is give a human voice. Feel good is entirely absent from Versteeg's sinister, desolate universe of high literature' (Jeroen Vullings, Vrij Nederland). 'Such an incredible write'(Annemaire Oster, de Volkskrant).

Wytske Versteeg is a Dutch author and political scientist. In 2008 Versteeg published This is Not a Homeless Person (Dit is geen dakloze) about her experiences as a volunteer, mixing philosophical literature with journalistic observations of homelessness. Her debut novel De wezenlozen (Weightless) was nominated for the Opzij Literature Prize 2013 and long-listed for the AKO Literature Prize. The Boy is Versteeg's second novel and won the BNG Bank Literature Prize (BNG Nieuwe Literatuurprijs) in 2014 and was longlisted for the prestigious Libris Literature Prize. It has also been translated into German, Italian, Turkish and Danish.