DE REPUBLIEK (THE REPUBLIC)

Winner of De Gouden Boekenuil

A gripping academic novel about deception and self-deception, ambition, the love of history as entertainment, and the hunt for the perfect enemy.
 
Josip Brik, larger-than-life pop philosopher, Hitler studies expert, and TV historian, has always found himself more attracted to the fictional representation of history than to history itself. When Brik falls from a hotel window in Amsterdam, the number one mourner is Friso de Vos, a young academic who has been Brik’s right-hand man. However, 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 in the newspapers, and even on TV, about “his mentor,” Josip Brik. When a large symposium for historians is organized in Vienna, Friso sees his opportunity to set the record straight and begins to impersonate Philip, with dangerous and hilarious results.

With a playful mix of literary and pop culture references, this novel immerses us in the world of the global intelligentsia, where the truth counts for less than what is said about it. Joost de Vries has written a biting academic satire, an absurd and exceptionally intelligent tale.

 '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