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      • Uitgeverij Prometheus

        Prometheus Publishers is a Dutch publisher that publishes a wide variety of quality fiction and non-fiction titles. Prometheus’s catalogue balances established talents with new voices that we introduce into the literary market. Amongst our fiction authors are renowned Dutch-language authors such as Connie Palmen, Griet Op de Beeck, Tom Lanoye, Tim Krabbé, and Esther Verhoef. Prometheus also publishes the Dutch translations of great international voices like Umberto Eco, Sandro Veronesi, Margaret Atwood, and Zadie Smith.   Our non-fiction catalogue is filled with experts from across the scientific spectrum. Ranging from history to psychology and from physics to literary studies, Prometheus offers exciting new insights into a wide range of disciplines. Prometheus also publishes a philosophical series with musings on subjects that are relevant to our society today.

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      • Fiction

        Dark Waves

        A Psychological Thriller Based on a True Story

        by Eric Wewerinke

        To his enormous delight Tim is asked to help sail a yacht from the Netherlands to Greece. For the skipper, a millionaire called Robert, Tim’s negligible sailing experience doesn't appear to present any problem at all. Once aboard, Robert keeps Tim and his friend Julia entertained with the most captivating stories. However, as the journey progresses, Robert starts to act rather strangely. Little by little Tim begins to realize that Robert is not quite the man he appears to be to the outside world.  Could it be Tim’s imagination running riot after weeks at sea, or might he actually be dealing with a psychopath? Black Waves is a thriller that gets right under your skin. A story about trust in human goodness, but also about people who present themselves differently to how they really are deep inside.

      • March 2020

        De vondeling

        by Eva Maria Staal

        Agnes’s father is dying. As a child, Agnes was her father’s little princess; now, she questions whether he really loved her.   To banish her doubts, Agnes fantasises about her father on paper. Only when she reads what he himself wrote about his life, on a harsh journey to Germany at the end of the Second World War, does she understand who he was. But even then, her search is not over. What unfortunate event alienated them from each other? And what role does the adoption of Agnes’s daughter, Lima, play in their lives?   The Foundling is the magical, captivating story of Agnes, her father and Lima. It is an equally moving and witty novel about inescapable and self-chosen family ties, regret and forgiveness, written by one of the most original writers in Dutch literature.

      • October 2019

        Vaderliefde

        by P.F. Thomése

        P.F. Thomése’s parents are dead, and the remnants of their lives are packed up in a few boxes in the attic. The writer realises that his father and mother were, in a way, like a couple of strangers, constantly putting on a show for him.   His father used to tell him countless stories in the semi-darkness before bedtime. But he did not utter a single word about his heart-stopping experiences in the Second World War. His mother never talked about herself at all, yet her untold stories are perhaps the most beautiful of all those to be found in Fatherly Love.   The ‘left-behind son’ posthumously discovers a wealth of hidden histories and magnificent fictions, with the horrible truth inevitably somewhere in between. Gathered together, the ‘lost lives’ of his parents and ancestors undoubtedly constitute a family saga, but above all, Fatherly Love can be read as the mythology of a childhood.

      • Fiction
        October 2017

        Hoor nu mijn stem

        by Franca Treur

        Ina lost her parents at age three and grew up with her grandfather and his two unmarried sisters, Ma and Sjaan. This "family" treads the old paths of the Dutch Reformed Church, and the young, ambitious Ina tries to climb the steps of God's grace like her shining example, Aunt Ma. However, as she grows up, the social ladder beckons and seems easier to climb. Will she succumb to this environment or does she stay faithful to God?   How does it affect you when you realize others would prefer to see someone else instead? In a short time, Gina, the self-proclaimed ‘best radio interviewer in the Netherlands’, loses her job, her lover and her dignity. Throughout her life she informed herself with the ideas and the inner worlds of others. But what about her own?   In this new, psychological novel Franca Treur gives a voice to women from parts of our society where a woman is not often heard.

      • May 2020

        Een wolf bij zijn oren pakken

        by Sana Valiulina

        When the elderly Emperor Tiberius – who now governs the Roman Empire by letter after withdrawing to the island of Capri – peers at the signal station from his standpoint on the cliff, he is consumed by fear. Will his plan to eliminate the power-hungry Sejanus succeed, or will he himself be killed if he fails to flee to Syria in time? Sejanus has ruled in Rome for many years and is confident of the support of the Praetorian Guard. How did it come to this? How could the emperor who trusted no one put his destiny in the hands of this over-promoted provincial knight? Who is this Sejanus and how are these events related to the mysterious banquet that took place fifty years ago?   Grabbing a Wolf by the Ears is an unsettling saga about the most powerful families of imperial Rome, told from the perspective of the ‘saddest of men’, Emperor Tiberius, and about the extent to which people can shape their life and destiny.

      • March 2018

        Bier voor Afrika

        Het best bewaarde geheim van Heineken

        by Olivier van Beemen

        ‘Don’t turn this into a crusade. You are way too young for that,’ was Heineken CEO Jean-François van Boxmeer’s warning to the author during their first meeting. Investigative journalist Olivier van Beemen considered it as an incentive to dig even deeper in to the African secrets of the beer brewer.   Beer for Afrika is a book filled with remarkable disclosures and ground-breaking analyses that shine a new light on the African business world. The commercial success story of Heineken is interwoven with multiple violations of their own code of conduct and international guidelines. The beer brewer was implicated in war crimes, corruption and evades local authorities by channeling money via obscure constructions. ‘We don’t have a choice,’ answers Heineken. But is that really the case?   This new book is the result of a five-year investigation and in-depth conversations with the executive board of Heineken. It is the sequel to the highly acclaimed Heineken in Afrika which even led to parliamentary debates in the Netherlands and Europe and was nominated for the Lira Scherpenzeel Prijs for exceptional foreign journalism.

      • November 2019

        Mens/onmens

        by Bas Heijne

        Over the years we have slowly begun to understand the workings of both our body and our mind and even now we are still learning. We now know why we have a tendency to compartmentalise, why it’s so easy to turn people against each other, and why we rather befriend those who are similar to ourselves than befriend strangers. And more recently we have seen how social media and politicians can easily manipulate people.   In Human/Inhuman, renowned essayist and columnist Bas Heijne discovers what this new knowledge means for us and how we deal with this information. In his characteristic and clear writing style, Heijne asks the vital questions: how can we show solidarity in a world that is becoming more fragmented by the day, where everyone is searching for their own identity and the common good is often sacrificed for individual gain?   Human/inhuman is a sharp essay on how to be human in a polarised world.

      • February 2019

        Het tij keren

        Met Rosa Luxemburg en Hannah Arendt

        by Joke Hermsen

        Thinking begins with doubting and daring to say ‘no’. Apart from asking critical questions, thinking is also about making the link between past and future, in order to be better prepared for the possibilities that are hidden in the present. Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) and Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) were both political thinkers who argued for greater political participation from ordinary people, based on their critical views on capitalism and modern consumer society. ‘Political questions are far too serious to be left to the politicians,’ believed Hannah Arendt.   15 January 2019 marked exactly one hundred years since the murder of Rosa Luxemburg. ‘One would like to believe that there is still hope for a belated recognition of who Rosa Luxemburg was,’ wrote Hannah Arendt in 1966. In this book, Joke J. Hermsen attempts to do that. She also wonders to what extent the insights of Luxembourg and Arendt can help us in the transition to a more sustainable, human and solidary society.

      • February 2020

        De onzichtbare maat

        Archeologie van goed en kwaad

        by Andreas Kinneging

        The modern age is characterised by excess. But this goes directly against the great European tradition, stretching back to Athens and Jerusalem, which is all about moderation and restraint, and whose core idea is that the right measure can be found in the real world, although it is not visible. You have to seek it out. There is a right measure in everything: the right size clothes, the right amount of food and drink, the right balance between work and play, joy and sorrow, freedom and equality. Tact is a form of moderation. So is reasonableness. Ultimately, good and evil are nothing more than knowing where to draw the line.   This insight, this wisdom, has been swept away by the ideologies of Enlightenment and Romanticism, which dominate the modern world. They are both ideologies of boundlessness, or in other words, excess.   The Enlightenment seeks salvation in unlimited economic and technological progress, the infinite satisfaction of desires. Romanticism seeks happiness in endless experimentation and endless introspection, in search of the infinite Self. The result is a world thrown off balance and people without purpose or direction. Yet the answer is so simple: the right measure.   Our ancestors knew it. We have forgotten it. This book dusts off tradition and brings it back to life.

      • February 2019

        Wij zijn de Bickers!

        by Simone van der Vlugt

        While researching her historical novels, Simone van der Vlugt came across all kinds of extraordinary stories, which she now shares in her first non-fiction book.   We Are the Bickers! tells the compelling story of the Bicker family, an Amsterdam patrician family known for mayor Andries Bicker and Bickerseiland. We meet them in the sixteenth century, when they establish their position among the city’s elite, and follow them into the seventeenth century, when they reach the peak of their power. Both the family and the city of Amsterdam made an important mark on history in the Golden Age. We also witness the family’s experiences in the period after those glory days, through Wendela Bicker, the wife of Johan de Witt, who lived in a turbulent time.   The major historical events are interspersed with descriptions of parties, clothing, births, love and friendship, which paint a colourful and palpable picture of life in that time, as only Simone van der Vlugt can

      • February 2018

        Reconquista

        by Miquel Bulnes

        Towards the end of the eleventh century, during an expedition to collect protection funds for the city of Seville for King Alfonso VI, the young Castilian cousins Eloy and Carmelo become separated. Carmelo comes under the care of an Islamic vizier in Seville, learns Arabic and serves in Seville’s army; Eloy is appointed infanzón in the province of Toledo, which has been conquered by Alfonso VI. Eventually, their paths will cross again when they face each other on the battlefield.   At the beginning of the twelfth century the Mozarab brother Pius was summoned from Toledo to a monastery of the order of Cluny to hear the confessions of a dying noble. While the noble endlessly stalls his actual confession, Pius gradually begins to understand what kind of place he has traveled to and why he was assigned this task.   Reconquista is a dazzling, all-encompassing novel in which Miquel Bulnes sublimely tells the fascinating story of the struggle between Mohammedans and Christians in Medieval Spain through a host of unforgettable characters.

      • September 2020

        Varkensribben

        by Amarylis De Gryse

        For days, Marieke has been sleeping in a rental car parked along the canal. Just as she was about to do the laundry, her childhood sweetheart threw her out on the street. She lost her clothes, her home, and herself.   The summer is getting hotter and hotter. So is the care home where she works the morning shift as a nurse. Due to problems with the move from the old premises to the new, more modern building, Marieke is left alone with the elderly residents in the stifling heat. But as long as she does not think too much, everything will be okay.   She tries not to think about meatballs. About the old people wasting away in the facility. About that visitor she followed home. About her upbringing. About sausage with applesauce. About pralines. Or about raw meat and seafood salad.   Then everything will be alright. Or will it?   Pork Ribs is a tragicomic story about caring, loyalty, how memories affect a person’s life, and how food can be a substitute for all basic emotions.

      • October 2013

        Vele hemels boven de zevende

        by Griet Op de Beeck

        Lou is 12, Eva 36, Elsie 42, Casper 46, and Jos 71. Five people, connected to each other, tell their stories; about unexpected happiness that makes things difficult, about secrets that seem too big, about the complex art of being young, about obstacles that become mountains which are hard to climb, about continuing to try, to a point that no one can bear.   In Many Heavens Above the Seventh, five diverse characters fight more with themselves than with each other, in this life which is both ridiculously beautiful and immensely difficult.   Many Heavens above the Seventh is Griet Op de Beeck’s impressive debut novel. With beautiful sentences and original observations, she not only creates a set of intriguing characters, but she also sketches a striking picture of our time. Many Heavens is a complex novel that you can’t put down: witty, painful and recognizable. This writer is here to stay.

      • September 2015

        Jij zegt het

        by Connie Palmen

        Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath formed the most famous romantic couple in modern Western literature. In Your Story My Story, the Dutch novelist Connie Palmen provides a voice for Hughes, who died in 1998. In the book, Hughes’s character looks back on a passionate marriage that ended on February 11, 1963 with the suicide of his wife. Hughes also looks back on his own life, which, from that moment on, would be dominated by her death. In the countless biographies of Plath, she is given the status of martyr and Hughes that of a traitor and murderer. He was reviled by strangers and even sued by people he once considered his friends.   Using great restraint and insight, Palmen describes the thoughts, fears and incantations of this husband, and his deeply tragic bond with the woman who would come to define his life. Your Story My Story, ultimately, is a poignant novel about love and death.

      • January 2018

        Gebrek is een groot woord

        by Nina Polak

        Nynke ‘Skip’ Nauta has already been at sea for seven years when, in the Cannes Marina, her past catches up with her. There she sees the Zeno family with their brilliant adolescent son, Juda. The enthusiastic Zenos have previously taken good care of Skip and they invite her to spend a summer in their garden pavilion in Amsterdam.   Reluctantly, Skip accepts the invitation and travels back to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam she finds a city and a family slowly being eroded by the zeitgeist. Moreover, in the overcrowded, well-trodden streets of Amsterdam, there is no escape from the traces of two lost loves: a man and a mother, both of whom have tried unsuccessfully to drag Skip with them into tragedy.   Skip, the heroine, has always successfully opposed the roles forced upon her, but this time she will have to reconsider her outsider status. The question: Can an exile ever be at home?                   Great Love Comes To Mind is a novel about the disorientation between freedom and belonging. A book about attachment to each other, but also to our own reality.

      • April 2019

        Gebroken Wit

        by Astrid Roemer

        Grandma Bee, Louise, Heli, Imker, Babs, Audi. Family name Vanta. In Off-White, they are related to one another like the colours of refracted sunlight. Grandma Vanta-Julienne’s grandchildren are confronted with their own vulnerability when they are forced to support her through the turmoils of daily life.   Mother Louise has learned that outward appearance is not a simple fact, but a circumstance that bears witness to a history of organised violence in Africa, Europe and Asia. They live in a South American coastal city sustained by women, in a terrain that confines men with its natural boundaries.   The consequences are particularly palpable in the family circle: sisters Ethel and Laura are gone and father Anton is no longer alive. While caring for ailing Grandma Bee, the young Vantas all look for a country to love, a people to belong to, a dream to live for. Amsterdam owes a great deal to Paramaribo. And vice versa?

      • Jacques Rogue and the 7 Goats

        by Merlijne Marell

        He was there all of a sudden, and didn’t just leave again. He went up to Grandmother to introduce himself, that much he understood. “Jacques Rogue is my name. You better keep an eye on me.” And that’s what Grandmother did. She made sure he ate his vegetables. And saw to it that he behaved. She kept him from going out all by himself. But a villain goes where he should not. Besides, he preferred meat to vegetables. Jacques Rogue had already noticed that there was more to gain outside! When Grandmother dozed off that afternoon, he went out to meet the goats. In Jacques Rogue and the 7 goats Merlijne Marell takes you to a world of fables, with fertile red cabbages, spying rhubarb leaves and biting brambles. It leads you to the vegetable garden of Grandmother and her goats, where all of a sudden a villain turns up.

      • Outdoor Kids: Stargazing

        by Gerard Janssen

        Outdoor is trending! A delightful new series, with 3 books right away. Together with your children, look at the stars, search for animals, let your children tell you what the weather is going to be, and build an extremely sturdy hut. Together with your children (that is if they actually left you join!!!), (re)discover how wonderful it is to be outdoors. Great for organizing a survival party with kids! And also a perfect father's day gift!

      • Slow Living

        by Eva Krebbers

        AN ODE TO SLOW LIVING, NATURE & THE JOY OF CREATING We live in a world where everything is getting faster and more digital. To counterbalance this, more and more people have the need to create, to learn something new and see tangible results. This book is an ideal start for those who like a lot of different things and want to take a closer look at some DIY crafts. The Slow Living Inspiration Book is divided into seasons, so you can get inspired per season. There are projects by author Eva Krebbers herself, while she visits for more specialist projects (such as painting with plants, making wreaths and felting) an expert with many followers on social media. In this way, the book immediately gets a lot of attention through various channels and people on social media. * Lots of creative inspiration * Beautiful photography * Fits perfectly in the slow living trend * More than 25 creative projects * Big social media campaign Word count 41.310

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