Van der Heijden wins Libris Literature Prize

Author A.F.Th. van der Heijden has won the Libris Literature Prize 2012 for his novel Tonio. The award comes with a 50,000 euro cash prize.

The novel is based on the tragic accident which befell the author's only son. Twenty-one-year-old Tonio was hit by a car near the Vondelpark in Amsterdam.

The jury praised the book, “All emotional registers associated with death and grief are described with great skill: from hearing the news to denial, from anger to acceptance. In the final chorus of this symphony of death, you can hear hope, however merciless that might seem in view of the foregoing events.''

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