De Nederlandse Maagd (the Dutch virgin) by Marente de Moor has won this year’s Ako literature prize, which includes a cheque for €50,000.

The novel, set in 1936, is about a young girl who is a keen fencer and makes one think about the Netherlands’ neutrality during World War I and the ethical dilemmas ‘which are still relevant today’, according to the jury report.
De Moor’s mother, Margriet de Moor, won the same prize for her novel Eerst grijs dan wit dan blauw (first grey then white then blue) in 1992.