DE REPUBLIEK (THE REPUBLIC)
Winner of De Gouden Boekenuil (The Golden Book Owl)
DE REPUBLIEK begins with an accidental death. When Josip Brik (larger-than-life pop-philosopher and TV historian, with a special interest in movie-Hitlers) falls from a hotel window in Amsterdam, the number one mourner is Friso de Vos, a young academic who has been Brik’s ‘one-man praetorian guard’, as a New Yorker profile puts it.
Friso has also just broken up with his long-term girlfriend, Pippa, but consoles himself with the fact that he is sure to be regarded as Brik’s heir in the academic community and in the media.
As it turns out, Friso is forced to watch from the sidelines as his countryman Philip de Vries, whom he has never heard of, is interviewed again and again, about ‘his mentor’, Josip Brik. So when a large symposium for historians is organised in Vienna, Friso sees an opportunity to set the record straight. On arrival, he is mistaken for Philip de Vries, and he decides to roll with it… As Friso’s case of mistaken identity escalates, he finds himself entangled with a group of radical artists intent upon the de-politicisation of the Nazi salute, caught up in the dealings of an enigmatic art collector and his henchmen, and eye-to-eye with real-life Swastikas in the secret basement of an antiquarian in Vienna. But the real Philip de Vries isn’t far behind…
Effortlessly referencing everything from computer games to the classics, graphic novels to philosophy, DE REPUBLIEK is a page-turner that sparkles with humour and erudition. At its heart, it’s a touching and highly original novel about a young man who loses an old friend, who gains a Doppelganger, and who rediscovers the love of his life.
‘A book that explodes like a bomb… where ideas collide, partners clash and colleagues fight. This award-winning book is firmly rooted in the present… a new and refreshing approach to appearance and reality, it enters into intelligent dialogue with diverse cultural heritage. All in a refined style, and of international class’
Jury report, Gouden Boekenuil
‘Even more brilliant than his Mulisch-esque debut is De Vries’ Hermans-esque follow-up’
NRC Handelsblad, book of the year
‘…the new Harry Mulisch. Wait, no, the new Bob Dylan… if Joost is anything, then he’s the new Quentin Tarantino. He is furiously fast, full of jokes and references.’
Vrij Nederland
‘DE REPUBLIEK reads like a whirlwind… De Vries leaps between literary genres, from mischievous spy novel to vicious campus novel’
De Morgen
‘Joost de Vries has written an uncompromisingly intellectual novel that can just as easily be called a matchless social comedy’
Knack Focus
