Novel inspired by Brontë wins Netherlands' top literary prize

Anjet Daanje has won the Libris prize, the most prestigious award for Dutch literature, for her novel De lied van ooievaar en dromedaris. It is the first time the Libris and the Boekenbon prize, the Netherlands’ two major literary awards, both worth €50,000 to the winner, have been won by the same book. Daanje’s ambitious and highly complex novel spans three centuries and 11 chapters, each with a different narrator. She set the first section of the book in a Yorkshire village and drew heavily on Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights, for inspiration.