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2025 Longlist

We are light

Translated from the Dutch
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ABOUT
THE BOOK

“A riveting experimental novel about a commune where the members’ belief that they can live on light and love alone proves fatal for one of them.” ―Publishers Weekly, starred review. Winner of the 2021 European Union Literature Prize. In the middle of a summer night, Elisabeth, the oldest resident of the Sound & Love Commune, dies. Her sister Melodie and their two other housemates are arrested: the group’s attempts to stop eating and start living on light and love alone appears to have been fatal to Elisabeth. We Are Light is a highly original and entertaining novel about manipulation, vulnerability, and trying to be better.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Gerda
Blees

Gerda Blees is a Dutch author and poet. She taught at various universities for several years while doing linguistic research on Dutch-German lingua receptiva—conversations in which each person speaks their own language. We Are Light, Blees’s debut novel, won the EU Literature Prize as well as the prestigious Dutch Booksellers Award in 2021. It was also shortlisted for the Libris Literature Award. The author recently completed a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam while living with her family in Woerden.

Gerda Blees is a Dutch author and poet. She taught at various universities for several years while doing linguistic research on Dutch-German lingua receptiva—conversations in which each person speaks their own language. We Are Light, Blees’s debut novel, won the EU Literature Prize as well as the prestigious Dutch Booksellers Award in 2021. It was also shortlisted for the Libris Literature Award. The author recently completed a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam while living with her family in Woerden.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Michele
Hutchison

Michele Hutchison studied at UEA, Cambridge, and Lyon universities and worked in publishing for a number of years. In 2004, she moved to Amsterdam. Among the many works she has translated are La Superba by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Slaves to Fortune by Tom Lanoye, both Craving and Roxy by Esther Gerritsen, and Stadium IV by Sander Kollaard, for which she received the Vondel Translation Prize 2020. In the same year, her translation of Lucas Rijneveld’s novel The Discomfort of Evening was awarded the International Booker Prize. She also co-authored the successful parenting book, The Happiest Kids in the World.

Michele Hutchison studied at UEA, Cambridge, and Lyon universities and worked in publishing for a number of years. In 2004, she moved to Amsterdam. Among the many works she has translated are La Superba by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Slaves to Fortune by Tom Lanoye, both Craving and Roxy by Esther Gerritsen, and Stadium IV by Sander Kollaard, for which she received the Vondel Translation Prize 2020. In the same year, her translation of Lucas Rijneveld’s novel The Discomfort of Evening was awarded the International Booker Prize. She also co-authored the successful parenting book, The Happiest Kids in the World.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

It is fascinating story of a commune in which the members cease to eat and live of air and light. One member dies of starvation. What happened? You read the account by witnessing it by means of bystanders but also by means of other characters, such as the night, a cigarette or even the story itself! Each chapters is told by another character. Bizarre: the story is based on true accounts. Winner of the EU prize for literature 2021.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
14/09/2023
Country
The Netherlands
Original Language
Dutch
Author
Publisher
World Editions
Translator
Michele Hutchison
Translation
Translated from the Dutch
Borrow this book from Libraries Ireland

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