Lonely art form

Although we can see certain trends and schools of literature, writing remains a lonely art form, and possibly the ultimate loner in this respect is Arnon Grunberg (1971). He is probably the most important of the younger generation of Dutch writers, has an extraordinary output, and is loved by both the critics and the public at large. Grunberg is a gifted stylist with his own unique and instantly recognisable style that features irony, absurd dialogues, much repetition and somewhat other-worldly characters. For some time he published work using the pseudonym Marek van der Jagt as well as work under his own name. In this way he was able to win the Anton Wachter Prize for the best debut novel twice: in 1994 writing as Arnon Grunberg with Blue Mondays, and in 2000 as Marek van der Jagt with The Story of My Baldness.