Summary of Thirty DaysÂ
Alphonse, a musician of Senegalese descent, relocates with his girlfriend from Brussels to the Belgian Westhoek, a rural area in West-Flanders near the French border, where he takes up work as a handyman. On many of his jobs, people confide in him, sharing their personal problems and secrets, but he also encounters racism and prejudice. The novel recounts thirty days in Alphonse’s life in the Westhoek, culminating in the fateful day when he visits a makeshift camp of Afghan refugees.
Reasons to read Thirty Days
“Thirty Days” is a poetic novel about a kind-hearted man who tries to help his fellow human beings in a complex and fast-changing world. The area where the novel is set, the Flemish Westhoek, is a border area that grapples with transmigration issues and is marked by the scars of the First World War. The novel addresses themes of love, prejudice, and racism. It won the 2015 Bordewijk Prize for best Dutch-language novel of the year. Annelies Verbeke is a Flemish author and is best known for this novel and her debut “Sleep!”.
Setting: Westhoek (Belgium)
Original title: Dertig dagen
Year of publication: 2015
Nr of pages: 352
