Anjet Daanje won the prize for the Best Groningen Book 2023 tonight for The song of stork and dromedary. ‘Grand and compelling, a tour de force of eleven novels in one.’ Publisher Anton Scheepstra van Passage accepted the prize (a lithograph and the honour) on her behalf during a festive evening in the Forum Groningen. Peter Middendorp, Nina Polak, Allard Schröder and Ine Boermans were the other nominees. It is the second time that Daanje has won the prize.
The jury report:
The song of stork and dromedary contains eleven beautiful, imaginative novellas in which Anjet Daanje pulls out all the stops on a stylistical level and plays with themes such as death and transience, meaning, truth and myth-making and time. The novellas, each of which has its own main character and the last of which takes place in Groningen, are connected by increasingly weak threads and together form a breathtaking, but also very complex literary puzzle that you can nevertheless read in one figurative breath. This rich novel is an ode to literature, the gothic novel and the work of the Brönte sisters in particular. The song of stork and dromedary is a budding classic, a book you’ll want to read over and over again, leaving you blissfully confused and amazed after each reread. The jury of the Best Groningen Book bows deeply to the literary mastery and imagination of Anjet Daanje.
Won in the non-fiction category Wierden landscape (Noordboek) by Ben Westerink, who was present to receive the lithograph and the credit.
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