A love of reading led Karin Amatmoekrim to study modern Dutch literature. Considered one of the most up-and-coming young Dutch literary talents, her Radio Books contribution is a wistful coming-of-age story. 

Karin Amatmoekrim - "We are not Great'

Karin Amatmoekrim was born in Paramaribo, Surinam in 1976 to a Javanese mother and a Chinese-Creole-Indian father. She emigrated to The Netherlands with her mother and younger brother at the age of five. She studied psychology for two years at the University of Amsterdam before turning her attention to Dutch literature.

Facing west
She made her literary debut in 2004 with ‘Het knipperleven’ (Flashlife), an existential take on life in the fast lane for a group of twenty-somethings. Two years later, Amatmoekrim drew on her own family history for her second novel ‘Wanneer wij samen zijn’ (When we are together). It tells the story of three generations of a Javanese-Surinamese family.
 

“Every day Wagiman laid out his prayer mat on a clean piece of ground and bowed in prayer facing westward. One day his second cousin had remarked that he had heard that Mecca, the sacred spot towards which Wagiman was turning, lay not in the west but in the east. Wagiman had been flabbergasted. For as long as he could remember, Muslims had knelt facing west. There followed a long period of debate, in which Wagiman was hindered by his lack of geographical knowledge. Finally he was forced to accept that he had been taught to pray facing west because that was the position of Mecca in relation to Indonesia. When one was in Surinam, Mecca lay in the east.”                         
(from 'When We are Together')

In 2006 Amatmoekrim was asked to contribute to a collection of short stories called ‘25 under 35’, highlighting the most notable young writers in The Netherlands and Belgium. Her third novel ‘Titus’ published this year was nominated for the Black Magic Women’s Literary Prize. (Also nominated was Radio Books author Naima el Bezaz.)

Tropical tones
In Amatmoekrim’s story for RadioBooks, a teenager arrives in a small Dutch village and has a strong impact on the students there.

“Ronnie was white, but had lived all his life on Curaçao. His birth there had given his skin a golden glow and his voice was lilting, as if he were always speaking to the rhythm of the waves or the wind in the palm trees. It wasn’t long before we’d adjusted our North Holland accents to his tropical tone. We used words like ‘swa’ when we were talking about friends, and shouted ‘bunita’ at the tops of our voices at pretty girls in the street.”

It’s not only Ronnie’s accent that sets him apart from his classmates. His artistic sensibility attracts national attention. But another aspect of his personality suddenly undermines his popularity in this bittersweet coming-of-age story.

‘We are not Great’ by Karin Amatmoekrim was translated by Michael Blass. The story is read by David Swatling.

The series Radio Books is an initiative of Flemish-Dutch Huis de Buren in Brussels, in association with the Flemish radio broadcaster Klara and Radio Netherlands Worldwide.