Rick Van Buymbroek is known for his narrative journalism. He has been declared a master storyteller several times by the Narrative Journalism Foundation. “Treurwil” is his first novel. In the book published by De Besig Page, he mourns his deceased childhood friend, his brother who died young, and his mother. He examines his grief and “comes to terms with the grief that allows him to continue to hurt.”
“Treurwil is moving because of its honesty and intimacy,” says Lise van den Berghe of Parbok in Leuven. “It is a book that provides comfort to anyone who has experienced loss or will have to deal with loss. And to each one of us.”
Since 2016, the Association of Independent Bookstores has wanted to award the Confituur Bookstore Prize to “an amazing, surprising book from the Dutch language region of the past year: a book that is more than worthwhile and deserves additional support.”
Previous winners of the award have been Chris De Stoop, Jeroen Oelsligers, Koen Peters, Pieter Verhelst, Charlotte van den Broek, Matthias MR Declerk, Peter Therrien and Jaap Rubin. Although it was originally a symbolic prize, the winner has received 2,500 euros since 2023.
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