GIVEAWAY!! Win tickets to Recital and Signing at The Poetry Cafe

On Wednesday 20th October Dutch novelist, columnist and poet Arnold Jansen op de Haar will make his first official appearance in the UK at The Poetry Cafe, in London. On this very special occasion the author of King of Tuzla will be reading from his anthology Yugoslav Requiem, a beautifully constructed dedication to the Bosnian Conflict.

Arnold was born in The Netherlands, in 1962.  He served as a Captain in the Dutch army, and was commanding officer of the unit that secured Tuzla Airbase in Bosnia for incoming UN aid in 1994, one year before the overthrow of the enclave Srebrenica in the former Yugoslavia.

After surviving this war he began writing full time and in 1999 his debut novel De koning van Tuzla was published by De Arbeiderspers. He followed this in 2002 with his poetry collection Soldatenlaarzen published by JM Meulenhoff. Arnold has published other works in Dutch and has been a successful columnist for many years. He is now turning his attention toward the English market, working with Holland Park Press and the acclaimed translator Paul Vincent. His anthology Soldatenlaarzen, now renamed Joegoslavisch requiem, was translated into English with the title Yugoslav Requiem, and his debut novel De koning van Tuzla is also available in English as King of Tuzla. The sequel to King of Tuzla, Angel, is soon to be published.

Review - King of Tuzla by Arnold Jansen op de Haar

King of Tuzla, by Arnold Jansen op de Haar, is the tale of Tijmen Klein Gildekamp, a soldier with the UN sent on an aide mission to Bosnia. It describes Tijmen’s physical and psychological journey through the former Yugoslavia, as well as showing snippets of the lives of others who Tijmen and his comrades pass along the way. It is told with the silent, humble authority of an author who has firsthand knowledge and experience of the scenes he has chosen to describe.

The novel is divided into five sections. The first three sections have Tijmen as an active soldier, awaiting and then partaking in his duties. The final two serve as a reflection of his final months in Bosnia after his return to his homeland in the Netherlands.

In the first section Tijmen is with a reconnaissance team in Bosnia awaiting a definitive mission, and we are intriduced to the sitation on Bosnia. Not only are the feelings of frustration and concern of the soldiers displayed, but also we are given glimpses of the civilians of both sides of the conflicts, of how their lives have changed, in the first of what I have coined the digressions. In various points throughout the novel the author jumps from the main characters, Tijmen and the soldiers, to other characters, to the inhabitants affected by the war. Starting with Galib Prolaz the Yugoslav, throughout the novel we briefly glimpse the lives of Lucia, Jasmina, Vlado Duric, Lazar Zekic, Ejup Delalic, and Hadija Ibrahimovic, real people on both sides of the conflict; real experiences that are not sensationalised nor glorified. We are allowed a glimpse into how it felt to be a soldier and a civilian in that war.