Gerbrand Bakker (novelist)
| Gerbrand Bakker | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 28 April 1962 Wieringerwaard |
| Occupation | Gardener |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Notable works | The Twin, The Detour |
| Notable awards |
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2010 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2013 |
Gerbrand Bakker (born 28 April 1962) is a Dutch writer. He won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for The Twin, the English translation of his novel Boven is het stil, and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The Detour, the English translation of his novel De omweg.
Bakker is a gardener by trade, having acquired his gardening license in 2006. He says writing and gardening are compatible. Bakker works as a skating instructor in winters. He commented "in the autumn when I rake the dead leaves I can do it for hours – once I even disturbed a pile I'd made so I could go on raking. The sound is so wonderful: it lets you think in a subconscious way, in the back of your mind.
He has previously worked as a subtitler for Dutch TV, particularly on the U.S. soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. Bakker has said: "They blabber and blabber, but you only have seven seconds for a subtitle on screen. That's what The Bold and the Beautiful taught me. I learned to leave things out." Among his favourite books are The Sea, the Sea, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wind in the Willows. He dislikes flying.
He is renovating a house in Germany, complete with garden, writing cabin and veranda.
Available in English translation by Bakker are Boven is het stil and De omweg. Among Bakker's other works are a children's dictionary and Pear Trees Bloom White, a young adult novel.
In 2002 Bakker was hiking through mountains whilst on holiday in Corsica when he first thought up the book that would become The Twin. He thought about a son who might "do something terrible to his father" but was left "frustrated" when the idea failed to progress any further until one day he began to write at random.Boven is het stil was published in 2006 and its English translation, titled The Twin, followed in 2008. The novel's Dutch title could be translated as "Upstairs, everything is quiet."
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