The Portrait

a novel
Willem Jan Otten (trans. David Colmer)

‘this is a book worth reading and rereading ... The author is a master in story-telling and he plays with secrets and riddles that he leaves to us, the readers, to unravel. It is amazing how he builds his case in this relatively short but thrilling story.’

Dutch Courier

‘The expertly written story keeps the reader captivated till the last page and is very well translated by David Colmer.’

Holland Focus

View all reviews

‘This new novel is once again confirmation of Otten's great talent.’

Nederlands Dagblad

‘...a novel that in the end encourages you to believe but also to think, as is the intention of literature.’

NRC Handelsblad

‘Otten recounts an exciting story.The different plots weave cleverly together and quite often the twists in the story surprise the reader....Otten connects in a very clever way the creation of art with the creation of life.’

Parool

‘An elegant and absorbing meditation on art and life, deception and revelation.’

Cameron Woodhead, The Age

‘The crowning of Otten’s cleverly constructed novel will not have disappointed anyone… a brilliant creation story.’

Trouw

‘Willem Jan Otten surpasses himself ... His new novel sings in places, more than I have ever heard before. Not Gregorian chants but Ottenorian. Read this book with your ears wide open.’

Vrij Nederland

‘This little novella by renowned Dutch poet, playwright and essayist Willem Jan Otten is one of the strangest and more enchanting works I have come across in some time ... While the work operates partly as a meditation on the act of creation, the extraordinary twin stories of love, desire and betrayal that carry it are revealed with the skill and timing of a psychological thriller. It poses questions for the reader at every turn and constantly surprises with the secrets it withholds, even to the last page ... This translation by awardwinning David Colmer makes a remarkable and intriguing work available in English.’

Liam Davison, Weekend Australian

‘This is a magic and immensely enjoyable novel. Otten displays tremendous skill in creating this book which is both believable and absorbing.’

Courier Mail

If you, like me, come into the world white and completely blank, with nothing on you at all, you are totally dependent on what they make of you.

The Portrait is an ingenious novel from one of Holland’s greatest living writers. Reminiscent of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is narrated by a canvas — a key eye-witness to, and participant in, an extraordinary story.

A young painter, loved for his fine and true-to-life portraits, receives a commission that is unlike any he’s had before: make a portrait of a dead boy. ‘You will save a life with it’, says the boy’s extremely rich father. The painter knows he will have to surpass himself. He takes on the job. But who was the boy? Why is he dead? Why, when the painting is finished, does the father not come to collect it? And why does the artist undertake this painting?

The Portrait is a thrilling novel about the desire to bring someone into the world. But it is also about love and death, betrayal and trust, and truth and falsehood.

In a breathtaking feat, Willem Jan Otten plays with secrets and riddles that the reader can only unravel at the very end. Masterfully translated by the award-winning David Colmer, Otten here demonstrates his rare gifts to English readers for the first time.

Dutch Courier

‘The expertly written story keeps the reader captivated till the last page and is very well translated by David Colmer.’

Holland Focus

View all reviews

‘This new novel is once again confirmation of Otten's great talent.’

Nederlands Dagblad

‘...a novel that in the end encourages you to believe but also to think, as is the intention of literature.’

NRC Handelsblad

Parool

‘An elegant and absorbing meditation on art and life, deception and revelation.’

Cameron Woodhead, The Age

‘The crowning of Otten’s cleverly constructed novel will not have disappointed anyone… a brilliant creation story.’

Trouw

‘Willem Jan Otten surpasses himself ... His new novel sings in places, more than I have ever heard before. Not Gregorian chants but Ottenorian. Read this book with your ears wide open.’

Vrij Nederland

Liam Davison, Weekend Australian

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size:

Extent:192pp

ISBN (13):9781921372469

RRP:$27.99

Pub date:31 Aug 2009

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

2005 Libris Prize — the Netherlands' prestigious literary award - Winner Constantijn Huygensprize - Winner

CATEGORIES / tags

AUTHOR

Willem Jan Otten

Willem Jan Otten, who was born in 1951, is a multi-award-winning Dutch poet, essayist, playwright, and novelist. His novel The Portrait, published in Holland as Specht en zoon (‘Specht and Son’), was awarded that country’s prestigious literary award, the Libris Literary Prize, in 2005.

TRANSLATOR

David Colmer

David Colmer was born in Adelaide in 1960. Since moving to Amsterdam in the early 1990s, he has published a wide range of translations of Dutch literature. He is also a published author of fiction. Colmer has won many awards for his translations, most notably the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, both with novelist Gerbrand Bakker. In 2009 he was awarded the biennial NSW Premier’s Translation Prize for his body of work.