Heads
Publisher: Alfabet
Moving novel about two boys in the Dutch East Indies
Based on the author’s parents’ story
1946, Dutch East Indies. Sybolt and Eddy, two soldiers and friends, are stationed in Surabaya. When a letter with a passport photo arrives at the camp from a Dutch woman who wants to correspond with someone in the East Indies, their friendship is put to the test. The coin tossed for this woman named Lien drives their lives apart forever. Half a century later, after Sybolt’s death, Eddy contacts Lien. It soon becomes clear that Sybolt had kept many things from her, and Lien increasingly becomes a key player in a story that was previously unknown to her. Heads is a novel about seemingly small choices and their sometimes devastating consequences, for which Martin Hendriksma found inspiration in his parents’ story.
Praise:
‘Hendriksma can write, create flesh-and-blood characters, he has humour on paper, he can handle the big picture and breathe life into history.’ – Jeroen Vullings, Vrij Nederland
‘A born storyteller’ – Trouw
