{"title":"Tommy Wieringa","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the captivating works of \u003cem\u003eTommy Wieringa\u003c\/em\u003e, a celebrated Dutch author renowned for his richly woven narratives and profound character explorations. With a compelling voice that resonates with readers worldwide, Wieringa's storytelling is both poignant and thought-provoking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eStart your journey with \u003cem\u003eA Beautiful Young Wife\u003c\/em\u003e, a deeply introspective novel that delves into the nuanced complexities of love and marriage. Continue with the vibrant tale of \u003cem\u003eJoe Speedboat\u003c\/em\u003e, where Wieringa crafts a spellbinding story about the essence of youth, friendship, and adventure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor a stirring dive into personal discovery and existential themes, explore \u003cem\u003eLittle Caesar\u003c\/em\u003e. Meanwhile, \u003cem\u003eThe Blessed Rita\u003c\/em\u003e offers a melancholic yet hopeful exploration of life in a small Dutch village grappling with modern challenges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWieringa also skilfully treads into the realm of political and social discourse with \u003cem\u003eThe Death of Murat Idrissi\u003c\/em\u003e, a gripping tale that confronts the harsh realities of migration and identity in Europe. For those keen on crime and intrigue, \u003cem\u003eThese Are the Names\u003c\/em\u003e provides a thrilling yet reflective narrative centred around themes of belonging and redemption.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith a versatile range, Tommy Wieringa’s books are a must-read for fans of \u003cstrong\u003eGeneral Fiction\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003ePolitics \u0026amp; Current Affairs\u003c\/strong\u003e, and \u003cstrong\u003eCrime \u0026amp; Thriller\u003c\/strong\u003e genres. His works not only captivate but also challenge readers to contemplate life's profound questions.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"joe-speedboat-by-tommy-wieringa-9781925321050","title":"Joe Speedboat","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Frankie Hermans emerges from a coma after 200 days, he knows his life is never going to be the same again. For a start, he can't talk, he can't walk and it's a struggle even to wield a pen. And then there's Joe Speedboat - a boy who arrived in the sleepy village of Lomark like a blazing comet and who's been stirring things up ever since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhether setting off bombs, racing mopeds or building a bi-plane, Joe has the touch of a magician and the spirit of a daredevil. He also sees a use for Frankie's good right arm beyond writing—as a champion arm-wrestler. Frankie will be strong enough to impress his friends and maybe even win the favour of the gorgeous, golden-haired girl who has them all in a spin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFull of vitality, verve and chutzpah, \u003cem\u003eJoe Speedboat\u003c\/em\u003e tells the fast-paced story of an unlikely friendship between two boys, and of their lightning dash towards adulthood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for Tommy Wieringa:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Highly intelligent ...Wieringa will make you think.'\u003c\/em\u003e – TLS\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Poetic, ambitious ...Brave.'\u003c\/em\u003e – The Guardian\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Superb ...A bravura performance.'\u003c\/em\u003e – Irish Times\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46495066587372,"sku":"9781925321050","price":24.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781925321050.jpg?v=1748480179"},{"product_id":"a-beautiful-young-wife-by-tommy-wieringa-9781925321180","title":"A Beautiful Young Wife","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe had never married and had never been with one woman for long; he had always remained a collector of first times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEdward Landauer, a brilliant microbiologist in his forties, meets a beautiful young woman. She is the love of his life, and when the two marry in France, Edward is the happiest man in the world. At first, Ruth Walta appears to represent a victory over time, but even she cannot stop him from growing older.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter the birth of their long-awaited son, the \"happiness, delicate like filigree\" turns into something new, and Edward no longer recognises his great romance, nor the woman who induced it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Beautiful Young Wife\u003c\/em\u003e by Tommy Wieringa, translated by Sam Garrett.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46529105920236,"sku":"9781925321180","price":22.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13537133482873.jpg?v=1749202614"},{"product_id":"little-caesar-by-tommy-wieringa-9781925321043","title":"Little Caesar","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLudwig Unger's life held such promise. His parents were artists and, from an early age, his own musical genius had marked him out for a stellar career in the world's concert halls. In his mother's imagination, Ludwig is already on the way to surpassing her most ambitious dreams for him. But in reality, and for now, he's playing in local cocktail bars and the two of them are living alone in a storm-lashed clifftop cottage in East Anglia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs the forceful winter seas bash away at the coastline, and Ludwig plunks away at the piano, he begins to tell a woman his story — a story of beauty and decay, of a child's faith and parental betrayal, and of the importance, in the end, of self-sacrifice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLittle Caesar\u003c\/em\u003e by Tommy Wieringa explores these themes in depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for Tommy Wieringa:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'A brilliant exploration of the uneasy transition from adolescence into adulthood - the restlessness, yearning for stability, irrational decisions and erotic obsessions.'\u003c\/em\u003e — Independent\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Highly intelligent ...Wieringa will make you think.'\u003c\/em\u003e — TLS\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Poetic, ambitious ...Brave.'\u003c\/em\u003e — The Guardian\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Superb ...A bravura performance.'\u003c\/em\u003e — Irish Times\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTranslated by Sam Garrett\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46531897229548,"sku":"9781925321043","price":24.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13535763482873.jpg?v=1749290406"},{"product_id":"the-blessed-rita-by-tommy-wieringa-9781925713268","title":"The Blessed Rita","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe had seen more and more people from the East in recent years. Mostly gypsies, people said. Bulgarians, Romanians - you could tell by the plates on the vans and the trailers. The Poles had been around for some time already. Burglaries, thefts. The blessings of the new Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHe had seen more and more people from the East in recent years. Mostly gypsies, people said. Bulgarians, Romanians - you could tell by the plates on the vans and the trailers. The Poles had been around for some time already. Burglaries, thefts. The blessings of the new Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePaul Krzen lives with his father in an old farmhouse, not far from the German border. Where once his father took care of him, now he takes care of his father. It has been a long time since his beautiful, worldly-wise mother left them for the arms of a Russian pilot, never once looking back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePaul's world is changing - his small Dutch village is now home to Chinese restaurateurs, Polish plumbers, and Russian thugs. Saint Rita, the patron saint of lost causes, watches over Paul and his best friend Hedwiges, two misfits at odds with the modern world, while Paul takes comfort in his own Blessed Rita, a prostitute from Quezon. But even she cannot protect them from the tragedy that is about to unfold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this sharply observed, darkly funny novel, Wieringa shines a light on people struggling at the margins of a changing world. \u003cem\u003eThe Blessed Rita\u003c\/em\u003e is an affecting tribute to those left behind and an ode to those wanting to transcend themselves and their heritage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCritical, dark, and profound fiction.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- Le Monde\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAn elegiac and beautifully written portrayal of a Dutch border village at the coalface of a New Europe, and a haunting tale of a man struggling to find purpose in a rapidly changing world, walking a tightrope between goodness and unresolved rage.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- Arnold Zable\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Blessed Rita is 'the patroness of hopeless causes, of barren women and women who were unhappily married, as well as butchers and meat traders'. Tommy Wieringa tells an engrossing, sometimes funny, and, at its end frightening, story of the mixed fortunes, virtues, and vices of many of the kinds of people who need her succour. He depicts their lives through changing times, cultures, and political circumstances with insight, humane wisdom, and an eye for detail and ear for tone that is given only to someone whose heart is as lucid as his mind is sharp. He does it in prose that is always simple, yet which becomes poetry so unexpectedly that it takes one's breath away.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- Raimond Gaita\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePraise for Tommy Wieringa - \u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe best contemporary novels are a quest made out of literary and moral ambition. Those who have successfully pursued this Holy Grail in recent times are Bolano with his The Savage Detectives, Sebald in Austerlitz, Coetzee with Disgrace and the late Philip Roth. From now on, to that august list must be added the name of Tommy Wieringa.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- Le Figaro\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46532909891820,"sku":"9781925713268","price":34.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/17458013482873.jpg?v=1749347200"},{"product_id":"the-death-of-murat-idrissi-by-tommy-wieringa-9781925713305","title":"The Death of Murat Idrissi","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo venturesome women on a journey through the land of their fathers and mothers. A wrong turn. A bad decision.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey had no idea, when they arrived in Morocco, that their usual freedoms as young European women would not be available. So, when the spry Saleh presents himself as their guide and saviour, they embrace his offer. He extracts them from a tight space, only to lead them inexorably into an even tighter one—and from this far darker space there is no exit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTheir tale of confinement and escape is as old as the landscapes and cultures so vividly depicted in this story of where Europe and Africa come closest to meeting, even if they never quite touch.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe gifted Dutch writer Tommy Wieringa is a bold, intelligent stylist, unafraid of exposing the ugliness of society juxtaposed with the vagaries of human nature. A taut, intense contemporary thriller of multiple exploitations ... The full mercilessness of the migrant dilemma is confronted here to devastating effect.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n—Eileen Battersby, The Observer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAs scintillating as it is unforgiving, this tiny diamond of a novel from Dutch author Tommy Wieringa is such a masterpiece of compression it could stand as an object lesson for students of creative writing ... A deceptively simple, yet intricately layered, tale of complicity and exploitation.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n—Cameron Woodhead, The Age\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIt has the grip of a nightmare that is all too plausible.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n—David Mills, The Sunday Times\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePraise for Tommy Wieringa:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe best contemporary novels are a quest made out of literary and moral ambition. Those who have successfully pursued this Holy Grail in recent times are Bolano with his \u003cem\u003eThe Savage Detectives\u003c\/em\u003e, Sebald in \u003cem\u003eAusterlitz\u003c\/em\u003e, Coetzee with \u003cem\u003eDisgrace\u003c\/em\u003e and the late Philip Roth. From now on, to that august list must be added the name of Tommy Wieringa.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n—Le Figaro\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46532983881964,"sku":"9781925713305","price":34.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/17458383482873.jpg?v=1749356294"},{"product_id":"these-are-the-names-by-tommy-wieringa-9781925106473","title":"These are the Names","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA border town on the steppe. A small group of emaciated and feral refugees appears out of nowhere, spreading fear and panic in the town. When police commissioner Pontus Beg orders their arrest, evidence of a murder is found in their luggage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs he begins to unravel the history of their hellish journey, it becomes increasingly intertwined with the search for his own origins that he has embarked upon. Now, he becomes the group's inquisitor... and, finally, something like their saviour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBeg's likeability as a character and his dry-eyed musings considering the nature of religion keep the reader pinned to the page from the start. At the same time, the apocalyptic atmosphere of the group's exodus across the steppes becomes increasingly vivid and laden with meaning as the novel proceeds, in seeming synchronicity with the development of Beg's character.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith a rare blend of humour and wisdom, Tommy Wieringa links man's dark nature with the question of who we are and whether redemption is possible. \u003cem\u003eThese are the Names\u003c\/em\u003e is an important and profoundly felt book about displacement and migration, but it is also fast-paced, often humorous, and full of lyric power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe prose is snappy and contemporary, but Wieringa's themes are timeless ones. – Patrick McGuinness\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46533712085228,"sku":"9781925106473","price":34.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11390063482873.jpg?v=1749394942"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/tommy-wieringa.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}