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
meet the author : mohsin hamid
Born in Pakistan, Mohsin Hamid has lived in Italy, England and the United States. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize several times, this ingenious world writer has always sought to explore and extend the notions of belonging and identity. He will do us the honour of opening the ninth edition of the Passa Porta Festival. An ideal start to an edition on the theme of REFUGE.
Poets on Call
During the Passa Porta Festival, we will be offering an extra-large multilingual edition of ‘Poets on Call’, which brings poetry to people over the telephone.
Lost and Found: Jeroen Olyslaegers en De rouw van Beer
Speciaal voor het Passa Porta Festival betreedt Olyslaegers het podium van de AB in het gezelschap van Nikkie Van Lierop (zang) en saxofonist Eric Sleichim, bekend van o.a. BL!NDMAN.