Jaap Robben in conversation with Melissa Giardina

Like many Poles, Lukasz has spent years working in the Netherlands and Germany. He regularly returns home and keeps in touch through messages. Then, suddenly, Janina stops hearing from her father. When a stranger contacts her to say he has Lukasz's coat, she decides to travel to Germany. What follows is a whirlwind search. A novel that reads like a detective story, yet without a murder and without a culprit. A reconstruction of a life through the eyes of everyone who crossed paths with Lukasz.

With the span of a long winter, Jaap Robben has written a contemporary European epic. It portrays a continent as a blended family, where language and origin determine who is seen and who remains invisible. But what traces does a person leave behind? Where do we find one another again? The invisible layer of migrant workers who keep our societies running is finally given a face and a voice, in all its Babylonian multilingual richness.

Jaap Robben (1984) won over booksellers, readers and critics alike with his debut novel Birk, which received numerous awards, including the Dutch Booksellers' Prize. Summer Brother was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2021 and received widespread acclaim far beyond the Dutch-speaking world. Twilight Life (2022) earned several international awards and became a beloved novel for many readers. Robben's novels are being adapted for film, and his work has been translated into numerous languages.