Wall Street Journal tips Groningen novelist for Nobel prize

The Wall Street Journal has named the Groningen-based novelist Anjet Daanje a serious contender for the Nobel prize in literature, in a review of her novel Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris (The Song of Stork and Dromedary), first published in 2022 and recently translated to English.

The paper’s critic Sam Sacks said Daanje is “one of the continent’s leading writers.”

Sacks noted that the prize has never gone to a writer from the Netherlands, which he put down to bad luck rather than any lack of quality. He named the late Harry Mulisch as another Dutch author who deserved it.

The last Dutch author nominated was Simon Vestdijk, who received multiple nominations in the 1950s and 60s. The Nobel archive is sealed for 50 years, so any more recent candidates remain secret.

Inspired by the Brontës
Daanje, who was born in Drenthe, achieved a breakthrough with her novel Deherdenking soldaat (The Remembered Soldier) in 2019.

Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris won both the Libris literature prize and the Boekenbon prize – the first book to take the Netherlands’ two main literary awards. Daanje went on to receive the Constantijn Huygens prize for her body of work.

The English edition runs to more than 700 pages. Loosely based on the Brontë sisters, it circles an Emily Brontë-like writer through interlinked stories spanning almost three centuries.

The 2026 Nobel prize in literature will be announced in Stockholm on October 8.