Published in the UK & US as LOVE LIFE

 

Winner of the NS Publiek Prize 2006
Over a million copies sold

 

Stijn and Carmen are a hip, healthy and wealthly couple; they are young, both have their own successful businesses and they are the proud parents of one-year-old Luna. No shortage of money or friends. They live like gods in Amsterdam. Until Carmen is diagnosed with cancer, that is. Their lives change from one big party to a journey though doctors and hospitals. While the beautiful and optimistic Carmen endures chemotherapy and radiation, the hedonistic Stijn plunges himself into the nightlife and women of Amsterdam.

 

A WOMAN GOES TO THE DOCTOR is an account of a terminal illness that is devoid of glitz or fake sentiment. In a style that, like the diagnosis, comes at you like a sledgehammer blow, direct and unencumbered, shameless but without theatrics, and yet always with humour, the author manages from the very first page to grab the reader and draw tears. Distressing hospital situations and spot-on characterisation of doctors and therapists alternate with the many heart-wrenching moments through the course of the illness. At the same time A WOMAN GOES TO THE DOCTOR is very much an ode to love. This novel will make everyone weep torrents but is ultimately uplifting and life-affirming.

 

First published by Podium to great acclaim in Holland, the novel was the best selling debut of the year, was selected by the ECI book club as the best debut of the year and has now been made into a film by Eyeworks Film & TV Drama. www.komteenvrouwbijdedokterdefilm

 

'A raw, moving and shameless ode to love.' Daily Mirror

 

'A portrait of love, flawed, painful and yet true, as it is in real life.' Daily Mail

 

‘This is not the self-indulgent story of a faithless man who wants absolution for past sins. It’s a remarkable tale, not least because of the sheer honesty of a man who could be forgiven for wanting to cast himself in a better light … read the novel without a box of hankies at your peril.’ Sunday Express

 

‘An emotional tale of how a man copes with his wife's cancer by sleeping with other women. An unusual but beautiful love story.' Heat

 

'An ode to love.' NRC Handelsblad

 

'A literary reality drama to make your mouth water.' De Volkskrant

 

'A modern day Love Story.' Meander

 

'Kluun knows how to pull you along and how to affect you deeply... A WOMAN GOES TO THE DOCTOR elaborates a different way of being ill, and is an ode to every aspect of love.' Marie Claire

 

'The Dutch former publicity man Kluun tells this story just the way it happens in real life, with all the absurdities and funny moments brought about by living with someone who's dying. A wonderful novel about courage, helplessness and real love.' Cosmopolitan Germany

 

'A radical 21st century version of Love Story. The text becomes more and more honest. The effect is maximal, the story really moves you because unlike Segal's Love Story, A WOMAN GOES TO THE DOCTOR not only pretends to be about two people who believe Love and Death are inseperable - it really is about them.' Der Spiegel (Book of the Week)

 

‘A raw, honest look at the darker corners of the human heart’ Marie Claire US

 

‘Wrenching, humorous, compelling’ Booklist (US)

 

‘Justifying his selfish behaviour on the grounds that he and Carmen no longer have a sex life, Dan stumbles from one life to the next. He is shown in the most unsympathetic light - and this is what makes the book so convincing... The closing chapters, in which he sets aside his philandering to nurse Carmen through the final days of her life, are almost unbearably moving... There is nothing pretty about Love Life; but its subject is not pretty. What comes across is a blisteringly honest and uncomfortable love story.’ Times

 

'...a contemporary mixture of Erich Segal's Love Story and Jan Wolkers' Turkish Fruit, while the style is reminiscent of Ronald Giphart's brutal manner: light, fast, playful and frank, almost provocative.' Meander

 

'A direct original writing style... Kluun has consciously saturated the autobiographical novel - not an autobiography - with complications, anecdotes and shameless humour. This has an enormous elating effect on the story... Never does it become pathetic; nowhere is one asked for pity. At the same time this original, raw, almost stark writing wrong-foots the reader continuously.' Viva

 

'It sets the reader thinking about the borders of decency and the dividing line between kitsch and art... Besides which Kluun finds in his 'wrampling' (a variant of sampling) a witty form to tell his story... Gradually an intense tragedy unfolds at breakneck speed in which the banalities of life are not glossed over.' Foundation for the Translation and Production of Dutch Literature

 

'This book made me feel angry, scared, involved and provoked, it also made me laugh and I m not too shy to admit it cry. LOVE LIFE proved that sometimes to read the uncomfortable can in fact be more comforting than you think possible.' Bookseller review from Waterstone's on-line

Podium NL (original publisher)

 

Scherz/Fischer Verlag Germany

 

Presse de la Cite France

 

Jota Czech Republic

 

Macmillan UK

 

Livanis Greece

 

Wahlstrom & Widstrand Sweden

 

Cicero Denmark

 

Kinneret Israel

 

St Martins Press USA

 

Cappelens Norway

 

Globosina Aleksandrija Serbia

 

Mladinska Knjiga Zalozba Slovenia

 

Fazi Editore Italy

 

Like Finland

 

Editora Record Brazil

 

Partvonal Hungary

 

Planeta Spain

 

Chiangjiang China

 

Editorial Presenca Portugal

 

Hena Com Croatia

 

Basilico Japan

 

Eulyoo Korea

 

Bjartur Iceland

 

Columna Ediciones Catalan

 

Janet 45 Publishing Bulgaria

 

Ripol Russia

 

NB Publishing Afrikaans

 

Pustaka Indonesia

 

Litera International Romania

 

Material: Finished copies (317pp).

Kluun’s second novel THE WIDOWER is currently also at the top of the bestseller lists. Over half a million copies of Kluun’s books have been sold in the Netherlands. It will be published in 14 different countries, including the UK and America and a feature film is in preparation.

 

After the death of his wife Carmen, Stijn stops working and drowns himself in the party scenes of Amsterdam and Ibiza. He doesn’t spend a single night alone. He allows no time for grieving. Until he leaves with his 3 year old daughter to Australia.

 

THE WIDOWER picks up where KOMT EEN VROUW BIJ DE DOKTER ends; written is Kluun’s familiar style: direct, uncompromising and very funny. It is a beautiful moving story about a father who together with his little daughter works through the tragic death of his young wife, in a camper van on the other side of the world.

 

‘Reads like a high-speed train.’ Het Parool

‘Makes you cry and laugh: comic and sad.' Avant Garde

'The merciless honesty of the Dutch author hits once again right in the heart' Lausitzer Rundschau

'Authentic and touching.' Glamour

'An extraordinary novel. In spite of the topic Kluun never becomes kitschy or sentimental, he writes brash things full of philosophy so that the reader is on the verge of tears. Maybe Kluun achieves all that because he has lived it for real.' Landeszeitung für die Lüneburger Heide

Scherz Fischer Germany

 

Jota Czech Republic

 

Presses de la Cite France

 

Macmillan UK

 

Wahlstrom & Widstrand Sweden

 

Cicero Denmark

 

Cappelens Norway

 

Fazi Editore Italy

 

Kinneret-Zmora Israel

 

Mladinska Knjiga Slovenia

 

Record Brazil

 

Business Weekly Taiwan (Complex character)

 

Citic Publishing House China (Simple)

 

Globosina Aleksandrija Serbia

 

Editorial Planeta Spain

 

Janet 45 Bulgaria

 

Presenca Portugal

 

Ripol Russia

 

Material: Various editions including English (268pp).