Fabula’s Literary Evening – Marieke Lucas Rijneveld: The Discomfort of Evening

Due to the author's obligations, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's performance will take place virtually, on April 10, at 8 pm, on the websites of Fabula and Cankarjev dom. The conversation with the author, which will be subtitled in Slovene, will be led by Petra Meterc.


The Discomfort of Evening is a sharp and gripping story about a ten-year-old Jas who lives with her strictly religious parents and her siblings on a dairy farm where waste and frivolity are akin to sin. One icy morning, the disciplined rhythm of her family’s life is ruptured by a tragic accident, and Jas is convinced she is to blame. This changes everything for the family as the parents and sibling react to the death of a family member in different ways. Jas, together with her brothers and sisters, develops curiosity about the issue of death, and in a whirlwind of increasingly disturbing fantasies, dreams of the “the other side” and of salvation, not knowing where this dreaming will finally lead her. “Incredible”, “exciting”, “brilliant”, “beautiful” are just some of the superlatives the global media has found for this astounding debut, this fascinating study of grief informed by the authors personal experience at the loss of his brother.

The novel was translated by Mateja Seliškar Kenda.

Marieke Rijneveld (1991) is one of the greatest new voices in Dutch literature. His first poetry collection was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize for best poetry debut in 2015, with newspaper de Volkskrant naming it it the literary highlight of the year. In 2018, Atlas Contact published the author's first novel, The Discomfort of Evening, which won the prestigious ANV Debut Prize and was a national bestseller. The novel which shows the consequences of family trauma with brutal directness and surrealist imagery was partially inspired by the death of the author’s brother. In 2020, Rijneveld became the youngest author ever to win the International Booker prize.