June EPUB

A visit from the Queen, a tragic accident, a divided family: a masterful new novel from the prize-winning Gerbrand Bakker.

On a hot summer’s day in June 1969, everyone is gathered to welcome Queen Juliana. The boys and girls wave their flags enthusiastically. But just as the monarch is getting into her car to leave, little Hanne Kaan and her mother arrive late — the Queen strokes the little girl’s cheek and regally offers Anna Kaan her hand.

It would have been an unforgettable day of celebration if only the baker hadn’t been running late with his deliveries and knocked down Hanne, playing on the roadside, with his brand-new VW van.

Years later, Jan Kaan arrives on a hot day in June in order to tidy his sister’s grave, and is overcome again with grief and silent fury. Isn’t it finally time to get to the bottom of things? Should the permit for the grave be extended? And why won’t anyone explain to his little niece Dieke why grandma has been lying up in the hayloft for a day and a half, nursing a bottle of Advocaat and refusing to see anyone?

June traces in spellbinding, tender detail how the ripples from one tragic incident spread through a community, a family, and down the generations.

PRAISE FOR GERBRAND BAKKER

‘The portrayal of the Kaan family is impressive, not to say deeply moving … June is a heartrending novel, with a tone entirely its own.’ The Daily North

‘Bakker once again proves himself a master at creating atmosphere. Abundant sensuous details pervade the reader’s consciousness: the mother’s hips that shrink and grow on her bicycle saddle, the swallows flying soundlessly in and out, the damp concrete floor that heralds a shower of rain … Bakker is and remains every inch a writer.’ Trouw