David Vann
Family, weapons, violence, tragedy, crystal-clear prose – and fish too. These are the ingredients of a typical David Vann novel. In his latest book too, Halibut on the Moon (forthcoming), all these ingredients recur to a greater or lesser extent. Vann lifts the lid on what he’s been cooking. Yoann Blanc reads fragments from his work.
A dark spiral
Jim, a suicidal man of middle age, is travelling from Alaska to California. His brother, who will take care of him and is determined not to lose sight of him, is waiting for him there.
Jim meanders restlessly through his old life, in search of meaning in his relationships with his parents and friends, his ex-wife and his children. The sessions with his therapist increasingly get out of hand, and his relations with the people around him fall apart. Jim’s thoughts push him forwards, tragically in the direction of the inevitable.
Halibut on the Moon (forthcoming) offers a moving insight into the mind and the reality of a man who has fallen under the spell of the dark logic of his depression, desperately seeking deliverance.
David Vann (b. 1966) was born on the island of Adak in Alaska. His debut, Legend of a Suicide, was a worldwide success and won, among others, the Prix Médicis Étranger, the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction and the readers’ prize of L'Express. Since then, Vann has published ten novels, reaping 14 prizes and translations in 23 languages.
Book signing
David Vann will sign his books at 14:30 in KVS. Books will be for sale at the signing.
Passa Porta, De Bezige Bij, Gallmeister, KVS
Photo David Vann © Susanne Schleyer
Photo David Vann © Diana Matar
Coming soon at
Literary oracle
Curious about your future? Not afraid of strong women? Then come and join our three literary witches. Skilled in literary tarot, they will be guided during a card reading by the secret powers of authors such as Emily Dickinson, Octavia E. Butler and Anna Akhmatova.
Strange, surprising adventures
Imagine yourself on Robinson Crusoe’s desert island with illustrators Jayde Perkin, Charlotte Dumortier, Sarah Cheveau, Denise Hermo and Shamisa Debroey.
FRVisite féministe du Béguinage
Nomade, le Passa Porta Festival prend cette année ses quartiers à l’église Saint Jean Baptiste. L’occasion de revisiter ce quartier où des béguines trouvèrent refuge.