Derk Visser
Derk Visser (b. 1959) is a youth worker by profession. He writes about problems that he knows inside out because of his day job, although he has stressed in interviews that he does not write about his work.
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His empathy for young people is palpable and, more importantly, he has a great understanding of their sense of humour, which is infectious but not always appropriate. His talent as a writer was slow to reveal itself; he says that, as a child, he had reading difficulties. He made his literary debut in 2005 at the age of 47, with Patchouli. His career really took off with Patatje oorlog (2007), Landjepik (2009) and Prikkeldraad (2011). In 2012 he was awarded the Charlotte Köhler Stipendium to support the expansion of his oeuvre. Visser lives in the Frisian countryside with his family. He has two daughters and a son.
More Derk Visser
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Drama Queen
In the days around Christmas and New Year, boys bombard each other with snowballs and fireworks. The police have not dared to show their faces for weeks. Angel divides her time between her mother, who is a striptease dancer, and her alcoholic grandfather. Her mother wants nothing to do with her grandfather, and her father isn’t around.
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Patatje oorlog
The title of this book needs a little explanation. ‘Patatje oorlog’ is a typical Dutch dish, literally translated as ‘chip war’: chips with two or three sauces and chopped onions. Sounds innocent enough, but the two fourteen-year-old protagonists of this book actually tend to visit the snack bar for other reasons, such as to buy cigarettes with the help of a friend who’s a little older than they are.
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Barbed Wire
There are few YA novels about unskilled young people in grim, impoverished neighbourhoods. But Derk Visser really seems to have a preference for characters from disadvantaged backgrounds. After his sharp novellas 'Patatje oorlog' and 'Landjepik', he has once again chosen to portray this kind of teenager in his critically acclaimed 'Prikkeldraad', but for the first time at greater length.