THE DARKROOM OF DAMOCLES Named Finalist for Best Translated Book of the Year

The Darkroom of Damocles, by Willem Frederik Hermans, has been named one of the ten finalists for the Best Translated Book of the Year by Three Percent. This classic novel is widely considered one of the great masterpieces of post-war literature, and Hermans (1921-1995) is also the author of Beyond Sleep, also published for the first time in the U.S. by Overlook. Before devoting his entire life to writing, Hermans had been teaching Physical Geography at the University of Groningen for many years. He had already started writing and publishing in magazines at a young age. His polemic and provocative style led to a court case as early as 1952. In his novels and stories, Hermans places his characters in a world of certainty for themselves but equivocal for the reader. It is in this field of tension that the intrigue in De tranen der acacia’s (Acacia’s Tears, 1949) and in De donkere kamer van Damocles (The Darkroom of Damocles, 1958) develops. Although stories such as Moedwil en misverstand (Malice and Misunderstanding) and Paranoia have a surrealistic tendency, Hermans’ novels The Darkroom Of Damocles, Nooit meer slapen (Beyond Sleep), Uit talloos veel miljoenen (From Countless Millions) are more realistic or satirical and everything in his rich oeuvre is subordinate to the author’s pessimistic philosophy."

W.F Herman's THE DARKROOM OF DAMOCLES Nominated for Best Translated Novel of 2008

Announced today on the Three Percent website, the 2008 Best Translated Book of the Year Fiction Longlist includes Overlook's The Darkroom of Damocles by W. F. Hermans. The list features authors from all over the world, including Nobel Prize winners and first-time novelists, and published by presses of all sizes, this longlist will be narrowed down to ten finalists on January 27th, with a winner being announced at a reception on February 19th at the Melville House offices in Brooklyn, NY. This award, started last year in reaction to the lack of international titles on “best of the year” lists, was created to bring attention to the great works of international literature being published in the United States. Criteria used in selecting these titles include the quality of the work itself, along with the quality of the translation. It is the only award in America honoring international literature that is given to the book itself.

Overlook's Classic Author Profiles

Willem Frederik Hermans: Author of BEYOND SLEEP and THE DARKROOM OF DAMOCLES

Considered one of the most important Western European authors to emerge from the postwar period, Willem Frederik Hermans was born in Amsterdam in 1921.

World War II left a strong impression on Hermans. His older sister and cousin committed suicide following the German invasion of Amsterdam in 1940, when Hermans was just 19. The war serves as the backdrop for many of his novels.

Appointed as a lecturer on physical geography at the Groningen University, Hermans was forced to resign in 1958 after a parliamentary committee discovered he was using university stationary for his own writing. Hermans later published Among Professors, a fictionalized and biting account of his time at the university, which he’d written entirely on the backs of university letters.

After visiting South Africa in 1983, the Mayor and City Council of Amsterdam declared Hermans persona non grata for disregarding the cultural boycott on the country because of its Apartheid policy. Hermans was thus exiled from his home city until he returned in 1993 for a book presentation, insisting that the City Council revoke the imposition.

Hermans’s unique style of existential satire has been compared to the likes of Heller, Vonnegut, and Kafka. Despite his critical success in Europe, his writing is only now becoming available in the States. His most acclaimed novels, Beyond Sleep and The Darkroom of Damocles are now finally available in English from Overlook.

On Sale Today: THE DARKROOM OF DAMOCLES by W.F. Hermans

From the acclaimed author of Beyond Sleep, Overlook is proud to publish The Darkroom of Damocles, the first American edition of the 1958 masterpiece by the late Dutch novelist W.F. Hermans. Widely acknowledged to be the greatest Dutch novel of the twentieth-century, this classic work is now available in a new translation by Ina Rilke. Milan Kundera has written of The Darkroom of Damocles: "I read it in a single setting . . a thriller during which the suspense never flags . . a great novel."

Steve Wasserman recommends BEYOND SLEEP

There's a great Q&A up at Critical Mass with Steve Wasserman, who penned this great article about the state of book reviews. In it he has some praise for Beyond Sleep:

Q: Since you've been outside the book review editing job, how has your reading changed? Have you discovered anyone new (outside your client list of course) that you think readers should know about?

A: Working another station in the kitchen hasn't changed my promiscuous reading habits. I can recommend the marvelous novel, "Beyond Sleep," by the remarkable late Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans, just published by Overlook Press.

The Scotsman on a Dutch Novelist: Michael Pye reads W. F. Hermans

The astute and thoughtful Michael Pye takes a look at two Willem Frederik Hermans' novels recently translated into English by Ina Rilke: Beyond Sleep, which the Overlook Press has just released in the United States and The Darkroom of Damocles, which we will release next year.

"Something went wrong between the world and WF Hermans and, to be honest, it was mostly Hermans's fault. He was a prickly, impossible, fussing kind of man, never happy with translations of his books, forever suspecting publishers of hoarding copies out of spite; a proper author, in other words. He couldn't stand the thought of failing outside his native Holland, some people say, because it would make all his Dutch enemies so happy.

But now that he's dead his books are finally appearing in English and here's the surprise: the world really needs WF Hermans. Milan Kundera understands the way he's literal and fantastic all at once, how he gets to the extraordinary by way of flatlands and dry prose, not self-indulgence. John le Carré was an early fan of his brilliance, as bright when writing farce as writing a thriller."

Judge for yourself what kind of guy W. F. Hermans was: here's some youtube footage of him being interviewed a few different places. I don't speak Dutch, but he seems to be able to bring the funny as well as the melancholy. He seems animated and argumentative, in the words of Pye, like all great authors. (Image by Dejan Petrovic)

BEYOND SLEEP by Willem Fredrik Hermans in the June/July/August BOOKFORUM

Great notice of Ina Rilke's translation of the Dutch classic Beyond Sleep, just out from The Overlook Press in Bookforum:

"So the first thing to say about Willem Frederik Hermans’s Nooit meer slapen (Beyond Sleep) is that forty-one years of being lodged in the Dutch canon have done it no harm at all; it’s as bright and black as anything contemporary. It has the energy and ruthlessness of farce and a terrifying deadpan style, and it ends in appalling catastrophe. What’s more, it is entirely unfamiliar."

And, if I do say so myself, the Bookforum redesign looks amazing.

Beyond Sleep in Publishers Weekly

The great Dutch novelist Willem Frederik Hermans' BEYOND SLEEP has finally been translated into English and will be available from The Overlook Press in May 2007. PW offers: "In this moving tragicomedy, Alfred's self-knowledge is achieved at great cost and offers him little hope. Hermans's portrayal of Alfred's existential transformation is deep and crystalline."