"It is a perfect marriage of art and words, with Faasen's simple palette and combination of extreme close-ups and wide angles reflecting the specificity of the fly's life, and the big, existential themes that Robben's words convey. So winning and so full of heart." –Riveting Reviews
"Full of wonderful sentences and witty dialogue." –Trouw
"Irresistible." –Het Parool
"This small book is great fun. All human life, I mean dipteran life, is here; birth, sex, death, shit and a buzzard. It's quirky but also very informative. It will make you laugh but it will also make you think. It's a fly's life–all 23 days of it." –MARK AVERY, blogger
"A little gem." –Volkskrant Boekenraad
"A special book–lively, visual, humorous, and also confrontational." –De Limburger
"Sometimes it's the small fruits that give the connoisseur a true taste explosion. Biography of a Fly is such a morsel. A gem to cherish. Writer Jaap Robben and illustrator Paul Faassen manage to conjure up a fairy tale about the special friendship of a fly with a buzzard with impressive brevity. Born from the poo of a dachshund, we follow the brief 23-day-life of our fly in its entirety. Witty, moving and beautifully illustrated." –Jury, Jan Wolkers Prize 2021
Praise for Summer Brother
"It's an impressive novel: a deceptively simple story of lives at the margin, with a child's viewpoint perfectly pitched and sustained, it is cleanly written and powerfully imagined. It reminded me of Claire Keegan's novella Foster, which has a girl narrator of a similar age, and is an outstanding book. But the challenges are greater here, as Robben deals with all kinds of inflammable material, and does it with such tact and understanding." –HILARY MANTEL
"A wild and touching read." –DORTHE NORS, Man Booker International-nominated author
"Dutch author Jaap Robben's second novel shows us the shedding of innocence. Summer Brother, translated by David Doherty, shakes out over a hot summer, during that potent lull when characters so splendidly boil, burst and bloom. Summer Brother grapples with the consequences of carelessness and the abuse of power and trust, even if the violation is unintentional. Robben is wonderful at drawing characters with just a few deliberate strokes. Like a photographer shooting a portrait, he captures his subjects in Summer Brother in a focused close-up." –New York Times
"A deeply humane novel centered on a disabled man, his heroic younger brother and an unreliable, partly criminal father living on an all but derelict site. The book is generous to all its flawed characters, is beautifully written, and humanizes lives of abject poverty on the edge of squalor and disaster." –International Booker Prize, jury report
"The central premise of Summer Brother, Jaap Robben's evocative coming-of-age novel, longlisted for the International Booker Prize, is that love can thrive in the unlikeliest of places. It is easy to forget this is a work in translation, so deft is David Doherty's rendition. Robben depicts the limitations of a dysfunctional family but also celebrates empathy as a force for good." –The Observer
"A sensitive yet unsentimental depiction of poverty and disability from the perspective of an abled character." –Kirkus Reviews
"The book's language is precise and forthright, as Brian observes, and portrays in stark terms, the intense, awkward, and lovely actions of those around him. Sharp exchanges reveal characters who are witty and earnest in equal measure. Summer Brother is a harrowing novel about dysfunctional family dynamics and the universal awkwardness of being a teenager." –Foreword Reviews
"A tragic tale of generational dysfunction." –Publishers Weekly
"Summer Brother is a work of rare intricacy that warrants to be read with all the seriousness one can muster." –World Literature Today
"A warm, complex and luminous novel on these profound moments of ambiguity, and on the small, crucial acts of love." –RUTH MCKEE, Irish Times
"The short chapters and strong dialogue–masterfully recreated in David Doherty's pitch-perfect translation, which carefully captures and conveys the rough-and-ready characters and their volatile emotions–make Summer Brother a fast-paced read as it explores the tensions in a family living with a child with disabilities." –European Literature Network
"Refined and subtle, and at the same time one of the most striking voices in contemporary Dutch literature." –LIZE SPIT, author of The Melting
"A writer who crosses the ball with such elegance that there's no need to hammer it home." –De Volkskrant
"Subtle and refined." –NRC Handelsblad
"Robben's style is deceptively simple. You don't have to be an adult to read Summer Brother, yet Robben's imagery, subtle humor, and surprising plot will connect with the most literate of readers. The novel offers a moving insight into a boyhood that gives pause for reflection." –De Standaard
"Like no other writer, Robben can empathize with the mind of a child and he imbues the reader with this open and uninhibited outlook as the story unfolds." –Hebban
"Summer Brother is a wry and funny book about a damaged family." –Algemeen Dagblad
"Lovingly, Robben shows Brian's hapless attempts to deal with pills and full diapers, yet all the while he is working mercilessly towards the inevitable climax." –VPRO Gids
"A poignant story about loyalty, disloyalty, solidarity, and puberty." –De Limburger
"A truly gutsy novel." –Tzum
"Summer Brother is a beautiful, modest novel. As he did with You Have Me to Love, Robben will once again win over a young generation of readers with this book. That in itself is praiseworthy." –Elsevier
"Jaap Robben has once again written an overwhelming book." –HMC Dagbladen
"His first novel, You Have Me to Love, was well-received, won prizes, and became a sales success. Summer Brother is a worthy successor and has all the ingredients to follow the same path. Robben knows how to write simply and magnificently―I kept underlining beautiful sentences in the first chapters." –Trouw
Praise for You Have Me to Love
"You Have Me to Love is an intense and dramatic novel filled with meticulous use of detail and a forensic psychological accuracy. Its power comes from the fierce energy of the narrative structure, the way of handling silence and pain, and the ability to confront the darkest areas of experience with clear-eyed sympathy and care. Jaap Robben handles delicate, dangerous material with subtlety and sympathy, but also with a visionary sense of truth that is masterly and unforgettable." –COLM TÓIBÍN
"I was completely seduced by this novel―it's raw and harrowing and very moving. Robben is a very powerful writer who reminds me very much of Per Petterson." –AIFRIC CAMPBELL
"Beautiful, just beautiful." –GERBRAND BAKKER
"This is a bold, tender and ambivalent narrative, raw and disturbing, with moments of painful beauty; a taut narrative heavy with a convincing sense of dread." –Irish Times
"You Have Me to Love explores raw and unsettling psychological territory. It is a story that once read will stick with the reader for a long time."–Literary Review
"Moving between child-like speculation and shocking realism, Robben's novel transports the reader into lives almost beyond imagining in the contemporary world. With echoes of Ian McEwan and Peter Carey, Robben's tale, already a huge success in the Netherlands, is one to savor and discuss."–ALA Booklist
"A small masterpiece." –Harpers Bazaar
"You Have Me to Love left me gasping, literally, for air. And groping for understanding. A blindingly good novel about the vulnerability of children and the hard truth of the world they inhabit." –The King's English Bookshop
"A promising novelist has risen. Robben lifts you from your life and sweeps you away, with no chance of escaping."–De Morgen
"An overwhelming debut about lost childhood innocence, You Have Me to Love can be favorably compared to Niccolò Ammaniti's I'm Not Scared and Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden."–Het Parool
"A gripping novel that steadily tightens its hold."–De Volkskrant
"Like a record stuck in its groove, it won't let me go." –European Literature Network
"From the very first sentence it is clear how well debut novelist Jaap Robben writes. His childishly simple yet highly suggestive sentences make You Have Me to Love as stark and foreboding as the island on which it is set."–NRC NEXT
"Unbelievable―a beautiful story, light for all its heaviness, written in a clear and powerful style. A coming-of-age tale in which Robben merges grief, simplicity, and isolation in a phenomenal way." –De Telegraaf
"Robben's clear sentences and empathic use of language read like poetry: rhythmic, probing, and sonorous."–Dagblad van het Noorden
