Wondermond

The past and present are inextricably linked in this pacy novel. More than a hundred years before, nearly all the men in the village died in a maritime disaster, including those in Boye’s family. After this catastrophe, the widows and daughters lost their livelihoods and often ended up having to resort to sex work.

Boye’s great-great-grandmother, Nanna, received regular visits from the pastor, who would rape her (‘his fingers digging around in her vagina as if he was looking for pocket change’). When Nanna’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Famke, became his maid and was abused too, Nanna took revenge and shoved a hot poker between his legs. Years later, Famke drowned him.

The story of these strong women is seamlessly intertwined with the present-day narrative centred on Boye. He desperately wants to get out of the village, but as time goes by he starts to empathise more and more with the people in the community, who are still crippled by poverty and shame about their past. Thanks to Boye, the final vessel from the fleet that was shipwrecked more than a century before is found. This find gives Wondermond an opportunity to process its traumatic past.

Anne-Gine Goemans is a brilliant storyteller who excels at having her characters find their inner strength, elegantly moving between the past and the present. Her characters are vividly drawn and her dialogues are witty and natural. Friesland province and the Frisians, the North Sea as a character in its own right, a gripping plot and the author’s lithe prose make Wondermond a wonderful feel-good novel.

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Susanne Rudloff

srudloff@amboanthos.nl