What do you think?
Rate this book
Boven is het stil
Helmer doet zijn vader naar boven; het is tijd om schoon schip te maken. Hij haalt de woonkamer en de voormalige ouderlijke slaapkamer leeg, schildert de boel en koopt nieuwe spullen. Ooit had hij een tweelingbroer, Henk, de lieveling van zijn vader, degene die de boerderij zou overnemen. Maar van de ene op de ander dag werd Helmer tot zijn opvolger gebombardeerd, door vader uit de stad gehaald en onder de koeien gezet. In het drassige laagland, met alleen het snuiven van de koeien en het gemekker van de schapen die de stilte nu en dan doorbreken, verzorgt hij de dieren en zijn oude vader.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
103 people are currently reading
3757 people want to read
About the author
Gerbrand Bakker
36 books180 followersGerbrand Bakker werd geboren op 28 april 1962 in Wieringerwaard, als derde zoon in een boerengezin van zeven kinderen. Heeft van 1967 tot 1992 'op school' gezeten: kleuterschool; lagere school; havo; vwo; agogische akademie in Leeuwarden en Nederlandse taal- en letterkunde aan de universiteit van Amsterdam.
Van 1995 tot 2002 was hij ondertitelvertaler, waarbij hij een voorkeur ontwikkelde voor natuurfilms die vrijwel allemaal in scène gezet worden: na een flink aantal documentaires zag hij regelmatig dezelfde beelden terugkomen.
Aangezien die kwarteeuw school blijkbaar nog niet voldoende was, begon hij in september 2003 een avondopleiding tot hovenier aan de Groene Campus in Alkmaar. In juli 2006 sloot hij die opleiding succesvol af en vanaf dat moment is hij - als 'vakbekwaam hovenier' - in te huren voor tuinontwerp en -onderhoud.
Omdat hij tijdens zijn studie Nederlands nogal wat aan etymologie had gedaan, en eerste pogingen tot het schrijven van kinderboeken faliekant mislukten, besloot hij een etymologisch woordenboek voor kinderen te gaan schrijven.
Van 1995 tot 2002 was hij ondertitelvertaler, waarbij hij een voorkeur ontwikkelde voor natuurfilms die vrijwel allemaal in scène gezet worden: na een flink aantal documentaires zag hij regelmatig dezelfde beelden terugkomen.
Aangezien die kwarteeuw school blijkbaar nog niet voldoende was, begon hij in september 2003 een avondopleiding tot hovenier aan de Groene Campus in Alkmaar. In juli 2006 sloot hij die opleiding succesvol af en vanaf dat moment is hij - als 'vakbekwaam hovenier' - in te huren voor tuinontwerp en -onderhoud.
Omdat hij tijdens zijn studie Nederlands nogal wat aan etymologie had gedaan, en eerste pogingen tot het schrijven van kinderboeken faliekant mislukten, besloot hij een etymologisch woordenboek voor kinderen te gaan schrijven.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 539 reviews
May 28, 2020
International Dublin Literary award 2010
What beauty...such prose. A very quiet book filled with the gorgeous scenery of the Dutch farmlands...don’t get me wrong, it’s not just scenic...it’s about the characters and their thoughts...their joys and hardships...their selflessness for others even though their parents couldn’t care less..It’s about life that is hard but beautiful...every breath brings out more to enjoy.
I first read Gerbrand Bakker’s book TEN WHITE GEESE last year. Based on Goodreads friend Zoey’s review it was a no miss and didn’t disappoint...I couldn’t wait for more and am so glad I read this book.
If you are a fan of quite literary books, please do give this a read. It gave me so much joy.
Hanneke, you must read...
5 out of 5 stars
What beauty...such prose. A very quiet book filled with the gorgeous scenery of the Dutch farmlands...don’t get me wrong, it’s not just scenic...it’s about the characters and their thoughts...their joys and hardships...their selflessness for others even though their parents couldn’t care less..It’s about life that is hard but beautiful...every breath brings out more to enjoy.
I first read Gerbrand Bakker’s book TEN WHITE GEESE last year. Based on Goodreads friend Zoey’s review it was a no miss and didn’t disappoint...I couldn’t wait for more and am so glad I read this book.
If you are a fan of quite literary books, please do give this a read. It gave me so much joy.
Hanneke, you must read...
5 out of 5 stars
July 1, 2019
Minimalistic, quiet and subtle story orchestrated for barely few persons. Helmer, now fifty something farmer, is trying to get a grip on his own life. He had plans, he had studied at Amsterdam, he had ambitions to become someone else but tragic accident destroyed all his dreams. And he had a twin brother, Henk, but he lost him, and it happend even earlier before the latter died for real. Henk met Rita and when she entered his life Helmer landed on the scrap heap. Their closeness and almost proverbial for twins intimacy dissolved and Helmer became half a twin. And from now there was even worse. After brother’s death he had to abandon university and start working on the family farm. And the whole story is a record of unmet desires and unfulfilled life. His days go on farming, tending sheeps and two asses, watching changing weather and caring for dying father whom he seems to hate with kind of cold, quiet fury.
The story appears so calm and peacful but is everything but that. Let this idyllic picture on the cover doesn't deceive you. The more we know from Helmer’s past the more unrest we sense. Tension feels almost palpable like the longing for these we most miss and forced presence the ones we prefer to avoid. We still can feel Helmer’s grievance for deceased brother and grudge against apodictic father. And even thirty years don’t seem enough to ease the pain and emptiness in everyday existence. Despite apparent simplicity, for all impression that nothing really is happening we can see whole gamut of emotion here. Helmer is quite complex man. His resentment towards father is understandable but from the other side Helmer never tried to stand up to him, there was no attempt to stamp his foot, to say: listen, it’s my life and my choice. And the more submissive he was the more misunderstanding and embitterment mounted. But as the tale progresses we can observe a tiny ray of hope for a change and finally taking life in own hands. I love such kind of narrative, slow and unhurried, meditative at places, almost elegiac. And somewhat unmodern today. Like the place Helmer lives in and the life he leads.
3.5/5
June 25, 2020
أحيانا تُغير الأحداث المفاجئة مسار الحياة وتدفع الانسان لاختيار طريق كان يرفض السير فيه من قبل
رواية تدور أحداثها في الريف الهولندي عنوانها الأصلي" هدوء في الطابق العلوي
هلمر الراوي مزارع خمسيني يعيش حياة ساكنة ورتيبة في مزرعة كبيرة
ينتقل بين الحاضر والماضي ويحكي عن حياته..الذكريات والعائلة والجيران وتفاصيل العمل في المزرعة
ظاهريا يقوم هلمر بعمله وواجباته وداخليا يحكمه الاستياء والغضب المكتوم وخاصة في علاقته بوالده المُسن
حالة من العزلة والتباعد والشعور بضياع العمر في حياة فرض على نفسه الاعتياد عليها
وخلال الحكي يكشف سوء الفهم والأخطاء والمشاعر المخفية داخل نفسه
سرد مسترسل وهادئ للكاتب الهولندي جيربراند باكر
رواية تدور أحداثها في الريف الهولندي عنوانها الأصلي" هدوء في الطابق العلوي
هلمر الراوي مزارع خمسيني يعيش حياة ساكنة ورتيبة في مزرعة كبيرة
ينتقل بين الحاضر والماضي ويحكي عن حياته..الذكريات والعائلة والجيران وتفاصيل العمل في المزرعة
ظاهريا يقوم هلمر بعمله وواجباته وداخليا يحكمه الاستياء والغضب المكتوم وخاصة في علاقته بوالده المُسن
حالة من العزلة والتباعد والشعور بضياع العمر في حياة فرض على نفسه الاعتياد عليها
وخلال الحكي يكشف سوء الفهم والأخطاء والمشاعر المخفية داخل نفسه
سرد مسترسل وهادئ للكاتب الهولندي جيربراند باكر
January 1, 2023
Ein Buch, welches eine unerwartet starke Resonanz in mir hervorrief. Ob die sehr ruhige Erzählweise des niederländischen Autors die Einschätzung generell rechtfertigt, kann ich gar nicht sagen. Für mich ist es auf jeden Fall eines der besten Bücher, die ich je gelesen habe.
Ich habe einen Faible für Bauernromane oder zumindest Romane, die im ländlichen Milieu spielen. Liegt vielleicht daran, dass ich in einen Bauernhof eingeheiratet habe und selbst von Feldern umringt wohne. Oft verklären andere Romane eine ländliche Idylle oder stellen die Personen überzeichnet dar, wenn ich an aktuelle deutsche Romane von Dörte Hansen oder Henning Ahrens denke. Gerbrand Bakker ist völlig frei von solchen Stereotypen. Sein Darstellung hat eher die Ausmaße eines Kammerspiels. Der Bauer Helmer, 55 Jahre, lebt alleine mit seinem pflegebedürftigen Vater auf dem Hof nahe Amsterdam. Die Beziehung ist zerrüttet aufgrund der Lieblosigkeit des Vaters. Diese gibt Helmer ihm nun zurück, verfrachtet ihn aufs Dach und versorgt ihn leidlich mit dem Nötigsten. Konversation wird kaum betrieben. Schon alleine wie Bakker diese Stille über Seiten wirken läßt und es dabei doch schafft, dass man gebannt die Geschichte weiterliest, ist für mich absolut beachtlich. Nach und nach lernt man die Familiengeschichte kennen, insbesondere die Trauer um Helmers Zwillingsbruder Henk. Doch dann bekommt Helmer plötzlich eine Art Praktikant auf den Hof und Dinge kommen in Bewegung.
Ich war fasziniert von der Art, wie der Autor die Vater-Sohn-Beziehung entwickeln lässt und dadurch die sich in sein Schicksal ergebene Art Helmers beschreibt. Es gibt dabei so viele Zwiespalte zu entdecken, wobei gerade seine Liebe zur Natur und den Tieren der täglichen Arbeitsroutine im Stall konträr ist. Helmer hat es nie geschafft, ein selbstbestimmtes Leben zu führen. Die Wendungen im Buch wirken dann wie ein Katalysator und so schafft der Autor es, ein warmherziges Ende zu finden, ohne dabei in den Kitsch abzudriften. Selten habe ich so etwas melancholisch Schönes gelesen.
Ich habe einen Faible für Bauernromane oder zumindest Romane, die im ländlichen Milieu spielen. Liegt vielleicht daran, dass ich in einen Bauernhof eingeheiratet habe und selbst von Feldern umringt wohne. Oft verklären andere Romane eine ländliche Idylle oder stellen die Personen überzeichnet dar, wenn ich an aktuelle deutsche Romane von Dörte Hansen oder Henning Ahrens denke. Gerbrand Bakker ist völlig frei von solchen Stereotypen. Sein Darstellung hat eher die Ausmaße eines Kammerspiels. Der Bauer Helmer, 55 Jahre, lebt alleine mit seinem pflegebedürftigen Vater auf dem Hof nahe Amsterdam. Die Beziehung ist zerrüttet aufgrund der Lieblosigkeit des Vaters. Diese gibt Helmer ihm nun zurück, verfrachtet ihn aufs Dach und versorgt ihn leidlich mit dem Nötigsten. Konversation wird kaum betrieben. Schon alleine wie Bakker diese Stille über Seiten wirken läßt und es dabei doch schafft, dass man gebannt die Geschichte weiterliest, ist für mich absolut beachtlich. Nach und nach lernt man die Familiengeschichte kennen, insbesondere die Trauer um Helmers Zwillingsbruder Henk. Doch dann bekommt Helmer plötzlich eine Art Praktikant auf den Hof und Dinge kommen in Bewegung.
Ich war fasziniert von der Art, wie der Autor die Vater-Sohn-Beziehung entwickeln lässt und dadurch die sich in sein Schicksal ergebene Art Helmers beschreibt. Es gibt dabei so viele Zwiespalte zu entdecken, wobei gerade seine Liebe zur Natur und den Tieren der täglichen Arbeitsroutine im Stall konträr ist. Helmer hat es nie geschafft, ein selbstbestimmtes Leben zu führen. Die Wendungen im Buch wirken dann wie ein Katalysator und so schafft der Autor es, ein warmherziges Ende zu finden, ohne dabei in den Kitsch abzudriften. Selten habe ich so etwas melancholisch Schönes gelesen.
October 27, 2023
Every now and there’s a nice discovery. The Dutch writer Gerbrand Bakker had been on my to-read list for quite a while, but because he wasn't much talked about, I wasn't really encouraged to read him urgently. Well, I can say now that he really was a gap in my literary culture. The man sure is a master of minimalism: economical-efficient, restrained and yet rich in description and psychology! Not that this is a book that gives happy feelings; on the contrary, labels such as bleak and harrowing are in order here.
At the beginning of the story, narrator Helmer Van Wonderen, a farmer in the Dutch outback, drags his very old father to the upper room, to spend the last months of his ailing life in seclusion. That might seem harsh (and it is), but of course there's a whole story behind it. In what follows we see Helmer constantly looking back on the family tragedy in the past, and his gradually liberating himself of that past. Bakker offers a mix of gloom and humor, but presented in a very original form, with the introduction of a pubescent teenager and relatively veiled homoerotic allusions. In a way this novel is a clever variation on the genre of 'polder novels', in which most protagonists are stiff characters that hardly speak, in which the heavily clouded skies push the already flat landscape even further below sea level and in which water and gloom are omnipresent. Wondering what else Gerbrand Bakker has to offer.
At the beginning of the story, narrator Helmer Van Wonderen, a farmer in the Dutch outback, drags his very old father to the upper room, to spend the last months of his ailing life in seclusion. That might seem harsh (and it is), but of course there's a whole story behind it. In what follows we see Helmer constantly looking back on the family tragedy in the past, and his gradually liberating himself of that past. Bakker offers a mix of gloom and humor, but presented in a very original form, with the introduction of a pubescent teenager and relatively veiled homoerotic allusions. In a way this novel is a clever variation on the genre of 'polder novels', in which most protagonists are stiff characters that hardly speak, in which the heavily clouded skies push the already flat landscape even further below sea level and in which water and gloom are omnipresent. Wondering what else Gerbrand Bakker has to offer.
March 31, 2022
Hikaye basit, tanımlamalar, kişilikler, anlatım dili basit, kelime seçimi özenli ama basit, ancak ortaya çıkan roman ustalıklı, sade, etkileyici, kısaca mükemmel. Hollandalı yazar Gerbrand Bakker’in ilk romanıymış.
Amsterdam’ın kuzeydoğu‘suna düşen Monnickendam isimli köyde bir çiftlik, çiftlikte yaşlı yatalak babası ve birkaç komşusu ile varoluşunu sorgulayan, 19 yaşındayken ikiz kardeşini kaybeden geçmişe takılı bir erişkinin hikayesi. Hepsi bu değil tabii ki, araya serpiştirilen bazı hoşluklar veya hüzünlendiriici olaylar kitabın akıcı okunmasını sağlıyor.
Bana bu kitabı tanıtan Bilalante’nin blogunda da çok iyi bir yorum var, hem kitabı hem yorumu okumanızı öneririm.
https://bagdaskurangolge.wordpress.co...
Amsterdam’ın kuzeydoğu‘suna düşen Monnickendam isimli köyde bir çiftlik, çiftlikte yaşlı yatalak babası ve birkaç komşusu ile varoluşunu sorgulayan, 19 yaşındayken ikiz kardeşini kaybeden geçmişe takılı bir erişkinin hikayesi. Hepsi bu değil tabii ki, araya serpiştirilen bazı hoşluklar veya hüzünlendiriici olaylar kitabın akıcı okunmasını sağlıyor.
Bana bu kitabı tanıtan Bilalante’nin blogunda da çok iyi bir yorum var, hem kitabı hem yorumu okumanızı öneririm.
https://bagdaskurangolge.wordpress.co...
July 2, 2012
Just finished The Twin, literally minutes ago, and want to get my thoughts down as quickly as possible. Not because I’m so very excited. It’s just that I know I have a problem doing a proper review after a few days have passed, and the truth is I don’t even know what I think of this book right now. Maybe I should let it marinate, but just in case, here goes.
The original title in Dutch is Boven Is Het Stil, which translates roughly to "Above Is Quiet." I would have liked to have known that, as the novel begins with the main character, Helmer, swapping rooms with his dying father, moving the old man into a room upstairs in the house they share. And then there’s the metaphor for heaven that “Above” suggests… not the heaven of paradise, but the heaven of where dead people go. Helmer is a man who, now in his fifties, is largely defined by the dead—his mother, his twin brother, his soon to be dead father. Not to mention a surfeit of dead animals throughout, which has only now occurred to me, upon reflection. If Helmer is defined by these deaths, and the dead are quiet, then Helmer is quiet too.
Quiet in the sense of silent, and Bakker repeatedly mentions sounds: a buzzing electric clock, a small radio playing jazz… but I don’t recall his making much of barnyard animals sounds, the sheep and chickens and cows. Helmer has no voice, can’t express his desires, doesn’t even know what his desires may be. His best hoping at finding desire at all is in putting a map on the wall of his bedroom.
And quiet in the sense of still, in that Helmer is unmoving, frozen by the deaths of those around him. At the moment when he would have become his own person, going off into the world to make himself into whatever he could, his brother dies, forcing him to return to the farm and take up the role his brother would have taken. Not exactly a square peg in a round hole, but nevertheless not the life he might have led, and certainly not the son his father would have chosen.
But this is not a maudlin story, a tale of tragedy and bitterness and regret. It’s sad, yes, the kind of sad you accept because that’s the way of life. Bakker, in Colmer’s translation, is gentle, simple, contemplative, without being barren or terse or merely laconic. Dutch winters are cold without being harsh, and spring is just another season, without being lush or refreshing. Sheep give birth to lambs, and some of them are stillborn—that’s the way of things.
This is a book that is rich with symbols and images, and plenty of opportunity for any given reader to bring as much as he or she wants to a reading. What do you make of the two donkeys, the television set, the binoculars, the broken bicycle, the windmill… I could go on. I mean this as only high praise, that this is a book that will be read and taught and examined and cherished.
Or, take it as it stands—a simple story about a sad man.
The original title in Dutch is Boven Is Het Stil, which translates roughly to "Above Is Quiet." I would have liked to have known that, as the novel begins with the main character, Helmer, swapping rooms with his dying father, moving the old man into a room upstairs in the house they share. And then there’s the metaphor for heaven that “Above” suggests… not the heaven of paradise, but the heaven of where dead people go. Helmer is a man who, now in his fifties, is largely defined by the dead—his mother, his twin brother, his soon to be dead father. Not to mention a surfeit of dead animals throughout, which has only now occurred to me, upon reflection. If Helmer is defined by these deaths, and the dead are quiet, then Helmer is quiet too.
Quiet in the sense of silent, and Bakker repeatedly mentions sounds: a buzzing electric clock, a small radio playing jazz… but I don’t recall his making much of barnyard animals sounds, the sheep and chickens and cows. Helmer has no voice, can’t express his desires, doesn’t even know what his desires may be. His best hoping at finding desire at all is in putting a map on the wall of his bedroom.
And quiet in the sense of still, in that Helmer is unmoving, frozen by the deaths of those around him. At the moment when he would have become his own person, going off into the world to make himself into whatever he could, his brother dies, forcing him to return to the farm and take up the role his brother would have taken. Not exactly a square peg in a round hole, but nevertheless not the life he might have led, and certainly not the son his father would have chosen.
But this is not a maudlin story, a tale of tragedy and bitterness and regret. It’s sad, yes, the kind of sad you accept because that’s the way of life. Bakker, in Colmer’s translation, is gentle, simple, contemplative, without being barren or terse or merely laconic. Dutch winters are cold without being harsh, and spring is just another season, without being lush or refreshing. Sheep give birth to lambs, and some of them are stillborn—that’s the way of things.
This is a book that is rich with symbols and images, and plenty of opportunity for any given reader to bring as much as he or she wants to a reading. What do you make of the two donkeys, the television set, the binoculars, the broken bicycle, the windmill… I could go on. I mean this as only high praise, that this is a book that will be read and taught and examined and cherished.
Or, take it as it stands—a simple story about a sad man.
September 3, 2017
Wat is de stilte en het naar binnen gekeerde leven van deze boer in Waterland meer dan prachtig beschreven. In alle eenvoud mooi!
March 26, 2019
I loved Dutch farmer Helmer van Wonderen’s minimalist approach to middle-age: first, move your unloving, invalid father out of the way to an upstairs bedroom; then haul the worn out family chairs, carpets, and curtains to the “muck heap,” stow the useless knickknacks in a storeroom, repaint in soothing shades of blue and white and gray, and replace your childhood bed; then narrow the sheep from an odd-numbered 23 to an even 20. Restart. Simplify. I’m all about it.
Helmer is a bachelor and a twin, rather was a twin. (Do you stop being a twin when one of you dies?) We know straight off that his brother Henk is killed in a car accident when the boys are nineteen, and thus begins Helmer’s stunted, mostly solitary life as his father’s “second choice.” He has felt forgotten and only half a person in the years since Henk’s death. Now he’s 57 years old. His brother is dead, his mother is dead, and his father is dying. He’s spent most of his life fulfilling an unwanted duty to his father and the farm. Now is a time to make changes. It’s never too late to make changes.
This is my second novel by award-winning Dutch author Gerbrand Bakker, and I highly recommend this writer to those who appreciate introspective, unhurried, character-focused novels. This one is less disturbing than ‘Ten White Geese’ (‘The Detour’) with humorous moments and a happier ending. Both novels will leave images in your mind that remain long after you close the book. From this one, I’ll remember frost flowers, hooded crows, big white underpants, two donkeys, a boiled egg, a map of Denmark, two pairs of binoculars, and so much more. This beautifully translated novel never rushed or tried to force my emotions, and I felt I became good friends with a very likable man named Helmer (not Henk).
“I stand up straight and study myself in the mirror in the light coming from the bedroom. This is my house now. I can stand naked in front of the mirror whenever I like.”
~ Helmer van Wonderen
Helmer is a bachelor and a twin, rather was a twin. (Do you stop being a twin when one of you dies?) We know straight off that his brother Henk is killed in a car accident when the boys are nineteen, and thus begins Helmer’s stunted, mostly solitary life as his father’s “second choice.” He has felt forgotten and only half a person in the years since Henk’s death. Now he’s 57 years old. His brother is dead, his mother is dead, and his father is dying. He’s spent most of his life fulfilling an unwanted duty to his father and the farm. Now is a time to make changes. It’s never too late to make changes.
This is my second novel by award-winning Dutch author Gerbrand Bakker, and I highly recommend this writer to those who appreciate introspective, unhurried, character-focused novels. This one is less disturbing than ‘Ten White Geese’ (‘The Detour’) with humorous moments and a happier ending. Both novels will leave images in your mind that remain long after you close the book. From this one, I’ll remember frost flowers, hooded crows, big white underpants, two donkeys, a boiled egg, a map of Denmark, two pairs of binoculars, and so much more. This beautifully translated novel never rushed or tried to force my emotions, and I felt I became good friends with a very likable man named Helmer (not Henk).
“I stand up straight and study myself in the mirror in the light coming from the bedroom. This is my house now. I can stand naked in front of the mirror whenever I like.”
~ Helmer van Wonderen
Read
August 4, 2024This is a beautiful book, a sort of modern elegy written in a country farmyard. Not a lot of plot but tons of emotion wafting about even if the characters have some difficulty voicing their feelings at times.
October 26, 2011
Wat een schitterend verstild boek. Ik vond het een boek om in een keer uit te lezen.Ben nu heel benieuwd geworden naar zijn andere boeken.
January 24, 2023
This is a very well-written, atmospheric novel that I appreciated but didn't particularly enjoy reading.
This book about a farmer and his aging father really nails the scene, farmers in the Netherlands and the cultural landscape. The difficulty of expressing emotions and the miscommunication was palpable. But I found some of the things too vague and it left me feeling like I didn't fully understand everything. Overall, while it's beautiful in its spareness, it made me feel empty and sad in a way that I didn't find fully engaging and rather a little uncomfortable. There is little story and a lot of atmosphere and characterisation.
This book about a farmer and his aging father really nails the scene, farmers in the Netherlands and the cultural landscape. The difficulty of expressing emotions and the miscommunication was palpable. But I found some of the things too vague and it left me feeling like I didn't fully understand everything. Overall, while it's beautiful in its spareness, it made me feel empty and sad in a way that I didn't find fully engaging and rather a little uncomfortable. There is little story and a lot of atmosphere and characterisation.
October 3, 2011
I'm always flattered when an author doesn't interpret her/his work for me, doesn't tell me how to feel or even what his characters might be feeling. I was taught to "show not tell" in fiction. Maybe that's why right from the start Bakker's The Twin had me "watching" it (directed by Ingmar Bergman, I think) in black and white perched on the edge of my chair. This was a two day marathon. And in the end I was awarded a quiet day of contemplation about what had happened and why, its reality and its mythos.
The cover praise fit this time: It was indeed "moving and compelling," tender and occasionally quite funny, not so much a "bleak tale of regret" as one of hope. "Spartan," yes. I hope it won't be giving away too much to describe it as a "coming of age" novel about a old bachelor farmer of 56. There's no need to say more. Bakker traps you on the first page and doesn't let go until the final, illuminating sentence. See: " I've put Father upstairs. I had to park him on a chair first to take the bed apart. He sat there like a calf that's just a couple of minutes old, before it's been licked clean, with a directionless, wobbly head and eyes that drift over things... "
Bakker has created something that tugs at the heart and the brain at the same time. Fiction!
The cover praise fit this time: It was indeed "moving and compelling," tender and occasionally quite funny, not so much a "bleak tale of regret" as one of hope. "Spartan," yes. I hope it won't be giving away too much to describe it as a "coming of age" novel about a old bachelor farmer of 56. There's no need to say more. Bakker traps you on the first page and doesn't let go until the final, illuminating sentence. See: " I've put Father upstairs. I had to park him on a chair first to take the bed apart. He sat there like a calf that's just a couple of minutes old, before it's been licked clean, with a directionless, wobbly head and eyes that drift over things... "
Bakker has created something that tugs at the heart and the brain at the same time. Fiction!
July 15, 2022
“The Twin”, with fiercely gorgeous prose was such a beautiful novel that the sentences seemed to rise from the earth itself.
Winner of the Dublin literary Award in 2010…. translated from Dutch to English by David Colmer.
Helmer van Wonderen owned a Dairy and Sheep farm near
Monnickendam, in the poider country north of Amsterdam…..in the rural Netherlands countryside.
Helmer and his twin brother, Hank were born in 1947.
Helmer’s twin brother, Henk, (their father’s favorite son), had been dead for thirty years. The farm was supposed to go to Henk, but he died in a car accident at the age of nineteen, by his fiancé, Riet who was driving the car 1965.
Helmer, now in his fifties, had to leave his University studies to milk the cows, tend the sheep, pigs, donkeys, crows, oystercatchers, and take care of his father who was bedridden—dying upstairs.
Always in the shadow of Helmer…..
“Henk will always remain nineteen. I see him sitting on the sofa before me, a bottle of warm beer in one hand, the top buttons of his shirt undone, his other arm over the back of the chair. Lonely music, soft”.
“When it was summer and we were in another country here - almost like America - nothing else existed. We existed and even stronger than the smell of warm water, sheep droppings and dried-out thistles was our own smell. A sweet, sometimes chalky smell of bare knees and bare stomachs. Sitting on the itchy grass. When we touched each other, we touched ourselves. Feeling someone else’s heartbeat and thinking it’s your own, you can’t get any closer than that. Almost like the sheep and me, merging together just before it drowned me”.
“Helmer?”
“Yes?”
“What’s it like having a twin brother?”
“It’s the most beautiful thing in the world, Henk”.
“Do you feel like half a person now?”
“I want to say something, but I can’t. I even need to grab one of the struts do you stop myself from falling. I’ve always been forgotten: I was the brother. Father and Mother were more important. Riet demanded - no matter how briefly - her widowhood, and now Riet’s son stands opposite me and asks me if I feel like half a person. Henk grabs me by the shoulders; I shake them off”.
“I’ve been doing things by halves for so long now. For so long I’ve had just half a body. No more shoulder to shoulder, no more chest to chest, no more taking each other‘s presence for granted. Soon I’ll go and do the milking. Tomorrow morning I’ll milk again. And the rest of the week, of course, and the next. But it’s no longer enough. I don’t think I can go on hiding behind the cows and letting things happen. Like an idiot”.
“Henk and Helmer, not Helmer and Hank. I am the kind of person who doesn’t have any memories at all of the first four or five years of their life. And if I do have memories, I suspect them of been contaminated, suggested by things other people have told me. My memory only starts in the fifties. I don’t know how often Father beat us before then”.
The atmospheric setting couldn’t have been imagined more….. and the story about love, loss, duty, and deceit was assured through the voice of the narrator, Helmer.
Gerbrand Bakker writes like a dream with scenes of achingly subtle beauty. The neighbors and supporting characters add richness too.
Bakker is such an impressive quiet writer — that I’ve already purchased another book of his to read: “The Detour”.
Many thanks to my friend Ingrid for the gift of this book. 💕
Winner of the Dublin literary Award in 2010…. translated from Dutch to English by David Colmer.
Helmer van Wonderen owned a Dairy and Sheep farm near
Monnickendam, in the poider country north of Amsterdam…..in the rural Netherlands countryside.
Helmer and his twin brother, Hank were born in 1947.
Helmer’s twin brother, Henk, (their father’s favorite son), had been dead for thirty years. The farm was supposed to go to Henk, but he died in a car accident at the age of nineteen, by his fiancé, Riet who was driving the car 1965.
Helmer, now in his fifties, had to leave his University studies to milk the cows, tend the sheep, pigs, donkeys, crows, oystercatchers, and take care of his father who was bedridden—dying upstairs.
Always in the shadow of Helmer…..
“Henk will always remain nineteen. I see him sitting on the sofa before me, a bottle of warm beer in one hand, the top buttons of his shirt undone, his other arm over the back of the chair. Lonely music, soft”.
“When it was summer and we were in another country here - almost like America - nothing else existed. We existed and even stronger than the smell of warm water, sheep droppings and dried-out thistles was our own smell. A sweet, sometimes chalky smell of bare knees and bare stomachs. Sitting on the itchy grass. When we touched each other, we touched ourselves. Feeling someone else’s heartbeat and thinking it’s your own, you can’t get any closer than that. Almost like the sheep and me, merging together just before it drowned me”.
“Helmer?”
“Yes?”
“What’s it like having a twin brother?”
“It’s the most beautiful thing in the world, Henk”.
“Do you feel like half a person now?”
“I want to say something, but I can’t. I even need to grab one of the struts do you stop myself from falling. I’ve always been forgotten: I was the brother. Father and Mother were more important. Riet demanded - no matter how briefly - her widowhood, and now Riet’s son stands opposite me and asks me if I feel like half a person. Henk grabs me by the shoulders; I shake them off”.
“I’ve been doing things by halves for so long now. For so long I’ve had just half a body. No more shoulder to shoulder, no more chest to chest, no more taking each other‘s presence for granted. Soon I’ll go and do the milking. Tomorrow morning I’ll milk again. And the rest of the week, of course, and the next. But it’s no longer enough. I don’t think I can go on hiding behind the cows and letting things happen. Like an idiot”.
“Henk and Helmer, not Helmer and Hank. I am the kind of person who doesn’t have any memories at all of the first four or five years of their life. And if I do have memories, I suspect them of been contaminated, suggested by things other people have told me. My memory only starts in the fifties. I don’t know how often Father beat us before then”.
The atmospheric setting couldn’t have been imagined more….. and the story about love, loss, duty, and deceit was assured through the voice of the narrator, Helmer.
Gerbrand Bakker writes like a dream with scenes of achingly subtle beauty. The neighbors and supporting characters add richness too.
Bakker is such an impressive quiet writer — that I’ve already purchased another book of his to read: “The Detour”.
Many thanks to my friend Ingrid for the gift of this book. 💕
January 16, 2023
ÇOK beğendim!
Hiçbir fikrim olmadan başlamıştım, yazarı daha önce duymamış ve hatta yanılmıyorsam Hollanda edebiyatından da kitap okumamıştım.
Yeri göğü inletecek kadar olmasa da değişik bir konusu var, çoğumuzun empati de kuramayacağı bir konu üstelik: ikiz olmak... Fakat, Bakker bey o kadar güzel yazmış ki. Tüm kitap boyunca pek aksiyon yok ama bireyin iç sesi, iç dünyası pek güzel verilmiş. 1. tekil kişi ağzından yazıyor, ordan oraya atlıyor, sonra tekrar anlatıcının içinde yaşadıklarına dönüyor.
Beni en çok çeken şey ise gündelik işleri gayet de basit bir dille vermesi oldu. Okurken canınız kahve yapmak istiyor, (hiç kullanmadığım halde) bisikletle en yakın tütüncüye gidip (yine kullanmadığım halde) sarma sigara almak ordan gelirken hangi kuşlar ortaya çıkmış bakmak istedi canım bolca. Hiç alakam olmadığı halde "böyle bir çiftlikte, böyle sade bir yaşam nasıl olurdu acaba" diye düşündürüyor ki bence bu kadar sade bir anlatımla bunu yapması çok kolay değil.
Bu arada kuşlar romanın ayrılmaz karakterleri, sakarmeke, kızılbacak, leşkargası, kulaklı orman baykuşu gibi kuşlar eşlik ediyor hikaye boyunca bize. Tabii "kunnalayan" koyunları, süt veren inekleri ve güzel gözlü isimsiz iki eşeği de saymak lazım <3
Diğer kitaplarına da bir bakayım dediğim bir yazar oldu Bakker tarzıyla.
Bir de çeviriye değinmeden de geçemeyeceğim: o kadar leziz ve özenli bir çeviri olmuş ki, Türkçesinden okuduğuma çok memnun oldum.
Hiçbir fikrim olmadan başlamıştım, yazarı daha önce duymamış ve hatta yanılmıyorsam Hollanda edebiyatından da kitap okumamıştım.
Yeri göğü inletecek kadar olmasa da değişik bir konusu var, çoğumuzun empati de kuramayacağı bir konu üstelik: ikiz olmak... Fakat, Bakker bey o kadar güzel yazmış ki. Tüm kitap boyunca pek aksiyon yok ama bireyin iç sesi, iç dünyası pek güzel verilmiş. 1. tekil kişi ağzından yazıyor, ordan oraya atlıyor, sonra tekrar anlatıcının içinde yaşadıklarına dönüyor.
Beni en çok çeken şey ise gündelik işleri gayet de basit bir dille vermesi oldu. Okurken canınız kahve yapmak istiyor, (hiç kullanmadığım halde) bisikletle en yakın tütüncüye gidip (yine kullanmadığım halde) sarma sigara almak ordan gelirken hangi kuşlar ortaya çıkmış bakmak istedi canım bolca. Hiç alakam olmadığı halde "böyle bir çiftlikte, böyle sade bir yaşam nasıl olurdu acaba" diye düşündürüyor ki bence bu kadar sade bir anlatımla bunu yapması çok kolay değil.
Bu arada kuşlar romanın ayrılmaz karakterleri, sakarmeke, kızılbacak, leşkargası, kulaklı orman baykuşu gibi kuşlar eşlik ediyor hikaye boyunca bize. Tabii "kunnalayan" koyunları, süt veren inekleri ve güzel gözlü isimsiz iki eşeği de saymak lazım <3
Diğer kitaplarına da bir bakayım dediğim bir yazar oldu Bakker tarzıyla.
Bir de çeviriye değinmeden de geçemeyeceğim: o kadar leziz ve özenli bir çeviri olmuş ki, Türkçesinden okuduğuma çok memnun oldum.
November 18, 2020
This very calm novel from a rural area of the Netherlands tells of the meager life of a small farmer.
Our protagonist Helmer van Wonderen runs a small dairy farm. He lives on the farm with his old father who needs care. His mother has long been dead, and his twin brother died in a car accident more than 30 years ago.
Helmer is not a farmer because he wanted to be one. Helmer is also not happy or only partially satisfied. He is so frozen inside that he can no longer perceive his feelings at all. It quickly becomes apparent that his relationship with his father is difficult. At the beginning of the book, however, Helmer is unable to deal with the past and his feelings.
You can't say that much happens in the course of the book, you can't even say that what happens is newsworthy.
The author does a very good job of conveying the gray, lonely and hopeless mood in which Helmer's life takes place. The reader can well empathize with Helmer coming out of his shell in the course of the book. Don't get me wrong: This is not a developmental novel in which the depressed protagonist ends up being a happy person. But still, something is definitely changing for Helmer.
Personally, I didn't find the story of Helmer incredibly captivating, but the author's talent for atmospheric descriptions was great.
I enjoyed reading the book and rate it with it 3 stars.
----------------------------------
Dieser sehr ruhige Roman aus einer ländlichen Gegend der Niederlande berichtet vom kargen Leben eines Kleinbauern.
Unser Protagonist Helmer van Wonderen führt einen kleinen Milchwirtschaftsbetrieb. Er lebt mit seinem alten, pflegebedürftigen Vater auf dem Hof. Seine Mutter ist schon lange tot, sein Zwillingsbruder starb vor mehr als 30 Jahren bei einem Autounfall.
Helmer ist nicht Bauer, weil er es sein wollte. Helmer ist auch nicht glücklich oder nur ansatzweise zufrieden. Er ist innerlich so erstarrt, dass er seine Gefühle überhaupt nicht mehr wahrnehmen kann. Es wird schnell klar, dass seine Beziehung zu seinem Vater schwierig ist. Helmer ist jedoch zu Beginn des Buches nicht in der Lage sich mit der Vergangenheit und seinen Gefühlen auseinanderzusetzen.
Man kann jetzt nicht behaupten, dass im Laufe des Buches viel passiert, man kann nicht mal behaupten, dass das, was passiert, berichtenswert wäre.
Der Autor schafft es sehr gut, die graue, einsame und hoffnungslose Stimmung zu vermitteln, in der Helmers Leben stattfindet. Der Leser kann gut nachempfinden, wie sich Helmer im Laufe des Buches aus seinem Schneckenhaus herausbewegt. Versteht mich nicht falsch: Dies ist kein Entwicklungsroman, in dem der depressive Protagonist am Schluss zu einem glücklichen Menschen wird. Aber dennoch ändert sich definitiv etwas für Helmer.
Die Geschichte um Helmer fand ich persönlich nicht wahnsinnig mitreissend, aber ganz großartig war das Talent des Autors für atmosphärische Beschreibungen.
Ich habe das Buch gerne gelesen und vergebe 3 Sterne.
January 15, 2022
I think the original title "Boven is het stil" ("Upstairs, it's quiet") better fits this novel than "The Twin". That is because in one of the first scenes, the main character moves his old and infirm father to a bedroom at the top of the house, expecting him to die there in the near future.
I love the minimalistic style with short sentences describing the reality of everyday life. Gerbrand Bakker is an excellent writer, although not as good as Reve, of course. Recommended. See, e.g., also this review.
I love the minimalistic style with short sentences describing the reality of everyday life. Gerbrand Bakker is an excellent writer, although not as good as Reve, of course. Recommended. See, e.g., also this review.
March 22, 2021
Boek staat vanaf de geweldige eerste zin. Geen verheven taal, wel diverse thema’s en lagen in het boek te ontdekken. Prachtig debuut.
January 29, 2024
El mundo cabe en una granja; la vida de un hombre, es una colección de decisiones; el odio es una forma de amar, porque, que es, si no el amor, una forma de que nos importe otra persona ya sea para bien o para mal; todos morimos, y lo que da miedo no es saberlo a ciencia cierta, sino el cómo y el cuando; se puede vivir de muchas maneras, solo hay que elegir una que sea la nuestra.
Helmer vive en un pueblo de los Países Bajos 🇳🇱, tiene una granja familiar y la habita junto a su padre, Helmer ya tiene casi 60 años, su única posesión son dos burros que compro, los demás animales ya eran parte de la granja.
Rutina y recuerdos embargan este libro 📚, mientras recorremos terreno junto a las ovejas, o las vacas, se cuelan impresiones pasadas, entre ellas un punto de inflexión, cuesta interpretar o traducir lo qué existe detrás, hay una contención férrea de emociones en todos los personajes tan acusada que en algún momento comprendemos que simplemente es una forma de ser.
Lectura corta, reflexiva, algo nostálgica, que apunta al centro de la vida, también incomoda en ciertos puntos, pero cercana a los temas medulares que nos preocupan a nosotros los humanitos, como la familia, vocación, amor, perdón.
Un acierto mayúsculo es el final, es liberador, reivindicativo, te deja con un sabor apenas dulce, equilibrado, nada excesivo.
Helmer vive en un pueblo de los Países Bajos 🇳🇱, tiene una granja familiar y la habita junto a su padre, Helmer ya tiene casi 60 años, su única posesión son dos burros que compro, los demás animales ya eran parte de la granja.
Rutina y recuerdos embargan este libro 📚, mientras recorremos terreno junto a las ovejas, o las vacas, se cuelan impresiones pasadas, entre ellas un punto de inflexión, cuesta interpretar o traducir lo qué existe detrás, hay una contención férrea de emociones en todos los personajes tan acusada que en algún momento comprendemos que simplemente es una forma de ser.
Lectura corta, reflexiva, algo nostálgica, que apunta al centro de la vida, también incomoda en ciertos puntos, pero cercana a los temas medulares que nos preocupan a nosotros los humanitos, como la familia, vocación, amor, perdón.
Un acierto mayúsculo es el final, es liberador, reivindicativo, te deja con un sabor apenas dulce, equilibrado, nada excesivo.
December 20, 2024
This is the first novel by Gerbrand Bakker I have read but it won't be the last. It is a novel of such perfection - intense, moving and compelling full of restrained tenderness and laconic humour and although it is described as LGBT and I have shelved it as queer-interest a far better definition would be Goodreads reviewer Aleardo Zanghellini's 'allusively-homoerotic-to-gay-themed' shelving definition (much as I would love to steal that shelving category I just can't bring myself to do so, it seems to unique and personal to its creator). It is not a 'gay' novel - the 'otherness' of the main character is far to subtly and deeply drawn to be so reductively described as 'gay' (also if you read the publishers synopsis and use it as a launching pad for erotic expectations you will be grossly disappointed).
An essential part of this novel is the setting, a farm and an isolated one, but it is this isolation, along with its setting, that is as much a determining and driving force in the novel. I hate to mention my own years as an adolescent growing up in Ireland but there is something unique about countries like the Netherlands and Ireland who had, until a recently, a culture and history steeped in farming and were the majority of its citizens, even urban ones are barely a generation or two from the farms their parents or grandparents were born on. The rural setting, the rhythms of farm life, particularly a dairy farm as in this novel, are beautifully rendered in minimal detail. But then the whole novel is minimal but incredibly powerful.
Novels about family relationships, between children and parents, growing up, leaving, trying to separate, failing to separate, resentments and overall trying to come to terms with love and death always resonate for me - especially when done with the magical, poetic beauty of this novel. It is no wonder this novel won a host of prestigious literary prizes - in fact it restores my belief in the ability of awards to recognise real talent.
A novel that is an utter joy.
An essential part of this novel is the setting, a farm and an isolated one, but it is this isolation, along with its setting, that is as much a determining and driving force in the novel. I hate to mention my own years as an adolescent growing up in Ireland but there is something unique about countries like the Netherlands and Ireland who had, until a recently, a culture and history steeped in farming and were the majority of its citizens, even urban ones are barely a generation or two from the farms their parents or grandparents were born on. The rural setting, the rhythms of farm life, particularly a dairy farm as in this novel, are beautifully rendered in minimal detail. But then the whole novel is minimal but incredibly powerful.
Novels about family relationships, between children and parents, growing up, leaving, trying to separate, failing to separate, resentments and overall trying to come to terms with love and death always resonate for me - especially when done with the magical, poetic beauty of this novel. It is no wonder this novel won a host of prestigious literary prizes - in fact it restores my belief in the ability of awards to recognise real talent.
A novel that is an utter joy.
September 12, 2022
‘Koca bir yarım adam’ diyor kendine Helmer. O, diğer yarısını kaybetmiş, isteklerinden başkaları uğruna vazgeçmiş biri. Hayatındaki tüm heyecanları bir halının altına süpürmüş gibi.
Hayvanlarına bakıyor şimdi, bir bahar daha görmek için yaşayan babasına ve camından görünen dişbudağa..
Biz de arkasındayız, puslu bir manzara bakıyor gibiyiz..
.
Gerbrand Bakker’ın ilk romanı ‘Yukarıda Ses Yok’. Bir ilk roman olduğunu anlamak neredeyse imkansız, çünkü bu ustalıklı bir eser. Son sayfaya dek umudu da kırılmışlıkları da dengede tutan türden.
Hiçbir karaktere kızamıyorsunuz. Helmer’a acımıyorsunuz da. Sadece hayatın gelişini kabulleniyorsunuz sanki..
.
Dinginliğiyle beni çarpan bir kitap oldu ‘Yukarıda Ses Yok’, sizlere de tavsiye ederim!
.
Türkay Yalnız çevirisi, kapakta Ed ve Nancy Kienholz’un Sollie 17 adlı enstalasyonuyla~
Hayvanlarına bakıyor şimdi, bir bahar daha görmek için yaşayan babasına ve camından görünen dişbudağa..
Biz de arkasındayız, puslu bir manzara bakıyor gibiyiz..
.
Gerbrand Bakker’ın ilk romanı ‘Yukarıda Ses Yok’. Bir ilk roman olduğunu anlamak neredeyse imkansız, çünkü bu ustalıklı bir eser. Son sayfaya dek umudu da kırılmışlıkları da dengede tutan türden.
Hiçbir karaktere kızamıyorsunuz. Helmer’a acımıyorsunuz da. Sadece hayatın gelişini kabulleniyorsunuz sanki..
.
Dinginliğiyle beni çarpan bir kitap oldu ‘Yukarıda Ses Yok’, sizlere de tavsiye ederim!
.
Türkay Yalnız çevirisi, kapakta Ed ve Nancy Kienholz’un Sollie 17 adlı enstalasyonuyla~
August 11, 2018
There's not much of a plot but the words were engrossing. Helmer is a 55 year old bachelor running the family farm. His twin brother died as a youth in a car accident. His father is barely alive. Helmer was a reluctant farmer but has carried on diligently. He is just starting to wake up and take control of his life and his sexuality.
There's a lot of solitude, milking cows, dealing with people leaving, and taking petty revenge on his infirmed and bedridden father. It's a book of colour (albeit a lot of black and white), smell (manure is featured regularly), sounds (there's a bit of Old MacDonald) and emotions. Memorable.
There's a lot of solitude, milking cows, dealing with people leaving, and taking petty revenge on his infirmed and bedridden father. It's a book of colour (albeit a lot of black and white), smell (manure is featured regularly), sounds (there's a bit of Old MacDonald) and emotions. Memorable.
May 23, 2010
“Everything is different when you have a coffin in your living room”
These are the kinds of sentences that fill The Twin: subtle, understated and crackling. This beautifully written novel shines with its character depiction of Helmer, a man who has made no choices in his life other than selecting the chickens for the farm. His home, the larger farm animals, his furniture and even his work clothes were passed on: choices that belonged to others.
However, the impending death of his father leads him to finally and uncomfortably assert his own will by moving the furniture, painting, and throwing out years worth of family relics. With this new and clean space, he finds that the things he can’t get rid of become more prominent. The house’s newly vacated space feels hollow, a reflection of the state of his heart and mind. He’s aware of his emptiness, and it’s illustrated when he buys a map to hang as “art” for his walls. The lack of anything attractive on the walls of his house makes the single picture lost and the emptiness all the more obvious. All he can do is look at the map and memorize the places he’d like to someday visit, an urge that seems impossible with all the burdens laid upon him since his teens.
He spends his days managing the meager farm, tending carelessly to his father and reeling from the thirty year loss of his twin brother Henk. For a time he allows a wayward teen to help as a farmhand, bringing new dynamics to his empty space. The complexity of the novel isn’t simply the missing twin, that sort of story has been written countless times before. Rather, the theme is based on identity of self, not in relation to anyone else (his father or brother) but in the form of his own destiny. He appears to make no strides towards the independence he aspires to, and the contrast between his thoughts and actions creates a tension that is sometimes funny and sometimes brutal. Self-determination is an entirely unknown concept to Helmer, and throughout the novel you question if he ever can achieve it. Some could read a geo-political message in this, but I’d rather leave that out and focus on the beautiful writing and the descriptions that make you pause: in reference to an old log, “even a dead thing can be beautiful.”
A symbolism that is repeated throughout the novel is of a solitary hooded crow that stalks Helmer through the windows and around the yard, silently glaring. Since crows generally represent sadness or death, I thought it was appropriate in many ways. Yet the way Bakker concludes the story, and accounts for the crow's presence, was still an unexpected surprise.
September 19, 2023
Ik had de titel al vaak horen noemen door vrienden en bekenden. En: steeds verbonden met lovende en enthousiaste woorden. Daarom ook maar eens ter hand genomen. En inderdaad, wat een prachtig boek! De sobere en ingehouden vertelling maakte ook op mij grote indruk. De vertelstem van Bakker zuigt je het verhaal binnen en houdt je in de ban tot de laatste letter. De dialogen zijn zeer overtuigend. Het spelen met motieven subliem. Het verhaal ontroerend. Wat een schrijver!
March 19, 2013
I’ve just finished reading this book and should perhaps wait a day or two to write my review so that maybe my gushing and cooing about how wonderful this book is will wear off a bit. But I doubt that I’ll feel different about this book tomorrow or ten years from now. Amazing...perfect...brilliant. Leaves me utterly speechless. For me...this is what fiction is all about.
To say so much with such simplicity.
To so aptly and accurately capture the essence of a place I have never been but will recognize when I get there.
Prose that is like poetry. A flowing of words that so effortlessly take me there...I am there...there with the sheep and the donkeys…with Helmer...prose that creates reality.
A book like this is why I love words.
I would give Gerbrand Bakker 10+ stars for this book!!
To say so much with such simplicity.
To so aptly and accurately capture the essence of a place I have never been but will recognize when I get there.
Prose that is like poetry. A flowing of words that so effortlessly take me there...I am there...there with the sheep and the donkeys…with Helmer...prose that creates reality.
A book like this is why I love words.
I would give Gerbrand Bakker 10+ stars for this book!!
July 14, 2020
Arabeske bağlanmaya hayli müsait bir konuyu bu denli yalın anlatabilmesini çok sevdim, genelde İskandinav edebiyatından alışık olduğumuz bir üslup bu, Bakker'in Hollandalı olduğunu düşününce "kuzey etkisi" demek de mümkün. Tek bir kelimeyi bile israf etmeden, en az sözle en büyük hikâye nasıl anlatılabilirse öyle yazılmış. Arka plandaki çiftlik temasının, çiftlikteki işlerin anlatıldığı kısımların yer yer beni sıktığını söylemeliyim, fakat konuya ilgi duyanlar için o kısımlar da gayet keyifli olacaktır.
Helmer, oldukça derinlikli çizilmiş, müthiş bir anti-kahramandı bence. Kitap bittiğinde, "acaba ölen Helmer olsaydı da hikâyeyi bize Henk anlatsaydı nasıl bir roman okurduk" diye düşündüm, ama Henk muhtemelen yaşamakla meşgul olup, yazmaya gerek duymazdı.
Helmer, oldukça derinlikli çizilmiş, müthiş bir anti-kahramandı bence. Kitap bittiğinde, "acaba ölen Helmer olsaydı da hikâyeyi bize Henk anlatsaydı nasıl bir roman okurduk" diye düşündüm, ama Henk muhtemelen yaşamakla meşgul olup, yazmaya gerek duymazdı.
October 6, 2023
Pek ön planda olmayan Hollanda edebiyatından mükemmel bir roman Yukarıda Ses Yok. Hem de bir ilk romanmış. Bir çiftlik ortamında geçmişin aile trajedilerini ve sonrasındaki yansımalarını, harcanan hayatları, sıradan insanları incelikle işleyen bir kitap. Karakterler arasındaki ilişkilerdeki nüanslar, muğlaklıklar, ki son bölümde zirve yapıyor, ustaca kurulmuş. Sade, süssüz (başta yadırgatıcı gelebilir bu aşırı sadelik) ama sonuçta epey etki yaratan bir üslubu var Bakker’in. Doğa tasvirleri, çiftlik ortamının anlatımı çok iyi. Türkay Yalnız’ın çevirisi de gayet iyi.
November 8, 2016
4,5 sterren. Wonderlijk boek... Licht onderkoeld verteld zodat de onderhuidse warmte heel tastbaar wordt.
Uitgepuurde taal die je geest speelruimte laat. Mooi!
Uitgepuurde taal die je geest speelruimte laat. Mooi!
April 4, 2019
Like many other literary prize winners, The Twin focus on internal changes and awakenings rather than plot. This elegant novel translated from original Dutch was the winner of the Dublin Literary Award, among other prizes. It traces the self realization of Helmer who 37 years after the death of Henk, the more popular twin, the "live" half of the personality the two shared, is mucking the barn, milking the cows, tending the sheep and caring for his dying father, the life that Henk was supposed to inherit. Helmer was the student, a future that was cut off by Henk's death. Once set in motion, changes occur realatively quickly for Helmer, resulting in surprising realizations and a very atypical resolution. It is filled with beautiful images of life in a Dutch countryside, and quite heavily saturated with symbolism.
August 8, 2023
Kuzey edebiyatının kendine özgü sakin sakin bir şey anlatma hâlini çok çok seviyorum. Büyük olaylar olmasa da yaşamdaki üzücü ve mutlu anların çoğu bu edebiyatın içinde kendine yer buluyor. Yukarıda Ses Yok da oldukça hüzünlü, çok samimi, sade fakat hep hatırlanacak cinsten bir eserdi benim için. Kitabın arka kapağında da yazıldığı gibi gücünü yalınlığından alan etkileyici bir roman. Bol bol kahve içildiği için canımı hep kahve çektiren, doğanın ve çiftliğin içinde olma hissini okura sonuna kadar yaşatan Yukarıda Ses Yok, Hollandalı Gerbrand Bakker'den okuduğum ilk romandı. Belli ki son olmayacak.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 539 reviews