STORYWRAPS: "You Have Me to Love"

Unwrapping the World Edition’s blog tour from Boekenweek which celebrates Dutch Literature

You Have Me to Love

By Jaap Robben

*Translated from Dutch by David Doherty

* Published: September 4, 2018

*ebook available

Accolades

* Voted Best Book of 2014 in the Netherlands and awarded the prestigious Dutch Bookseller Award

* Shortlisted for the Diorphte Literature Prize and for the ANV Debut Novel Prize 2015

Editorial Reviews

“This is a bold, tender and ambivalent narrative, raw and disturbing, with moments of painful beauty.”

The Irish Times

“You Have Me to Love is an intense and dramatic novel filled with meticulous use of detail and a forensic psychological accuracy. […] Jaap Robben handles delicate, dangerous material with subtlety and sympathy, but also with a visionary sense of truth that is masterly and unforgettable.”

Colm Toibin

“ An overwhelming debut about childhood innocence lost, You Have Me to Love favourably compares with Niccolò Ammanti’s “ I’m Not Scared and Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden.”

Het Parool

"Run to the bookstores, people!"

Dorthe Nors

Unwrapping the book

I love this book. It is extremely well written with characters masterfully developed and details that bring the text to life. The psychological plot implores you to keep on reading. The story is narrated by nine year old Mikael Hammerman. He lives on a remote island in the North Atlantic with his parents Dora and Birk. He is homeschooled by his father and he lacks the social skills to function in the real world because of his isolation.

A tragedy occurs one evening which shatters his life completely. His father is swept out to sea and Mikael watches as his submerged form slowly disappears into the deep. The author then proceeds to immerse the reader into the psyche of both survivors.

Without their stalwart family member both mother and son struggle to put their fragmented lives back together again. Dora finally reaches a breaking point where she cannot differentiate between reality and fantasy. She becomes increasingly jealous of her son even to the point where she desires him to become the husband that she misses so much and cannot cope without.

Tragedy, grief, depression and a great sense of hopelessness are all interwoven throughout the story. “You Have Me to Love” pulls at your heartstrings from beginning to end. As I was reading, I wanted to stage an intervention for both Dora and Mikael to help them find healing for their wounded spirits and broken hearts enabling them to live a normal life once again.

It was a book that I could’t put down and couldn’t stop thinking about when I put it back on the shelf. It truly is an unforgettable debut adult novel which begs a sequel.

Meet the Author

Jaap Robben is a poet, performer and acclaimed children’s author. You Have Me to Love, his first novel for adults, has received international glowing reviews. To date, “You Have Me to Love” has sold over 50,000 copies in the Netherlands, is available in ten languages and is currently being adapted into an English-language film.

Author Website

www.jaaprobben.com