Kris van Steenberghe’s debut novel wins multiple awards
Former teacher Kris van Steenberghe dreamed as a child of becoming a writer, and with his epic family saga examining the darkness in individuals as well as society, he’s made it
Delicate devastation
His debut novel, Woesten, was released a little over a year ago and received great reviews, but it slowly faded into the background. Until last month, that is, when Van Steenberghe won the Bronzen Uil, a prize for the best Dutch-language debut novel, as well as the readers’ prize.
“It was a great honour to be recognised for the work,” he says, “especially seeing as the novel was released last year. It’s wonderful to have the reviews validated with a prize, and it also buys you time and opens doors.”
But that’s not all: At the opening of the Boekenbeurs this year, he was also awarded the Flemish Debut prize, fuelling both his ambition and his second novel, which is already in the works.
Honing his craft
Van Steenberghe, who lives in Lier, Antwerp province, dabbled in acting and directing before he started writing his own plays. “That’s how I ended up in the Schrijvers Academie (Writers’ Academy) in Antwerp,” he explains. “I wanted to work on my craft. They had several courses there, such as prose and poetry, which had interested me for a while. It just happened to be the right time and place.”
It’s wonderful to have the reviews validated with a prize
The result is Woesten, a novel set in a village of the same name in the Westhoek region of West Flanders, a place scarred by the Great War.
The story of this promising debut begins with Elizabeth, a bright young woman living in Woesten. Hoping to escape, she marries Guillaume, a doctor from Brussels. Not long after their wedding, she gives birth to twin boys, one beautiful and blond, named Valentijn, the other dark and deformed. Disappointed and disgusted, Elizabeth’s husband calls him Nameloos (Nameless), denying him an identity and a legacy.
After Elizabeth’s death, the point of view switches to tell the story of the men she left behind. All will be crippled in one way or another, as there is no escape from the war that lingers in the shadows.
Human hardship
The initial idea behind the novel was straightforward. “I wanted to tell a story about twins, Van Steenberghe tells me. “What happens when one turns out beautiful and the other is maimed? How does it influence them? The parents? And even their environment? I wanted to explore what that kind of defect does to someone and how they survive it.”
As a father of five, including twins, the core of the novel hits close to home for Van Steenberghe.
I wanted to explore what that kind of defect does to someone and how they survive it
Woesten is set at the end of the 19th century but ultimately spans beyond the First World War, creating a multi-faceted portrait of human hardship. “I wanted to put the devastation of this individual, Nameloos, and man in general in a larger picture,” he says. “The First World War was a logical setting as it’s one of the darkest pages in our history.”
As with any novel with a historical backdrop, a lot of research was involved. “The novel took me four years to write, but it’s not a historical novel per se, nor is it a war novel; rather, it’s an epic family saga set in that particular period. If you want to know more about the war, you’ll feel cheated, as this is a work of fiction and not a historical account.”
Woesten is an intricately constructed tale, told by the four protagonists, each giving us their own interpretation of destiny in their own distinctive voice.
Smouldering sentiment with a whiff of Jane Austen and reminiscent of the classic 19th-century Flemish village novels full of gossip, adversity and hypocrisy, this is an impressive and deceptively simple debut with characters that leap from the page and into our hearts.
Atmospheric, grand and flawlessly Flemish, Woesten is good old-fashioned storytelling at its best.
Woesten is published by Podium ★★★★
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