Hairdresser's Son
Hairdresser's Son
Hairdresser's Son
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Description
Description
International Dublin Literary Award-winning Gerbrand Bakker gives voice to the visceral power of family ties in a novel brimming with Knausgaardian detail When his wife tells him she is pregnant, Cornelis packs his bags and boards a plane--a day later he is dead. Now grown, Simon roams the barbershop his father left him, honing razors and polishing mirrors in a shop marked FERMÉ. He sees his customers one by one, massaging scalps and shaving throats in an intimate, physical dance. There's only one customer whose presence in Simon's impeccable shop breaks this silent routine: the writer. Trimming the fine tips of the writer's eyebrows, Simon loses himself in a parallel life--one where he lives and grows old with the writer, shaping a crewcut around an "old, weathered face." The writer, looking for a life to fold into his next book, becomes entranced by the mystery surrounding Simon's father--in the patterns of their conversation, Cornelis's absence is renewed. As Simon begins to scour for the traces his father left behind, a carefully observed portrait of love and loneliness emerges. With subdued prose and bracing, sometimes pungent closeness, Gerbrand Bakker writes life itself into his characters.
About the Author
About the Author
Gerbrand Bakker studied Dutch historical linguistics and worked as a subtitler for nature films before becoming a gardener. His previous books include an etymological dictionary for children and the young adult novel Perenbomen bloeien wit (Pear trees bloom white). The Twin was awarded the Golden Dog-Ear, a prize for the bestselling literary debut in the Netherlands, and Archipelago's English-language edition was awarded the 2010 IMPAC Dublin Award. David Colmer is a writer and translator. He translates Dutch literature in a wide range of genres including literary fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and poetry. He is a four-time winner of the David Reid Poetry Translation Prize, and received the 2009 Biennial NSW Premier and PEN Translation Prize. He received--along with Gerbrand Bakker--the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Bakker's novel The Detour. Colmer lives in Amsterdam.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Brilliant . . . [The Hairdresser's Son] shows us Simon living his life--honing razors, polishing mirrors, sweeping discarded hair--an ordinary life filled with wonder. The subtlety with which the reader comes to see Simon's loneliness and desperation is magical (and depressing!). His condition is mine. It's yours. It's human."
--Rabih Alameddine, Literary Hub "To say that Gerbrand Bakker hasn't forgotten how to write a novel would be an understatement. With The Hairdresser's Son, he presents himself as one of the very best writers the Netherlands has to offer . . . With this vivid prose, he makes Simon fascinating, he makes him someone -- perhaps the greatest and most loving thing a writer can do. For the reader this results in the almost magical illusion that is the most extraordinary (and, I believe, unforgettable) thing about this novel: the sense of having really seen someone. Gerbrand Bakker has written his characters to life." --NRC Magazine "Enthralling in that although nothing feels invented, the pages still seem to exude something magical . . . Simply narrated scenes, terrifying and moving at once." --De Groene Amsterdammer "The charm of Bakker's book is how finely every element is balanced, how perfectly the story is paced . . . Bakker shows a fine gift for laconic comedy . . . The great pleasure of this novel is how it has just enough plot to allow us to relish its beautifully turned observations of birds and beasts, weather and water."--Tim Parks, New York Review of Books "This is a quiet book, humble in tone, with a fine, self-deprecating humor . . . It leaves the reader touched and with the impression of having seen and smelled the ever-damp Dutch platteland."--Times Literary Supplement "In this appealing metafictional outing from Bakker, an Amsterdam barber searches for the truth about his long-lost father . . . endearing quotidian scenes . . . draw the reader into speculation about [his father's] reasons for leaving Amsterdam . . . and the plot thickens with surprising revelations from his point of view back in 1977." --Publishers Weekly
--Rabih Alameddine, Literary Hub "To say that Gerbrand Bakker hasn't forgotten how to write a novel would be an understatement. With The Hairdresser's Son, he presents himself as one of the very best writers the Netherlands has to offer . . . With this vivid prose, he makes Simon fascinating, he makes him someone -- perhaps the greatest and most loving thing a writer can do. For the reader this results in the almost magical illusion that is the most extraordinary (and, I believe, unforgettable) thing about this novel: the sense of having really seen someone. Gerbrand Bakker has written his characters to life." --NRC Magazine "Enthralling in that although nothing feels invented, the pages still seem to exude something magical . . . Simply narrated scenes, terrifying and moving at once." --De Groene Amsterdammer "The charm of Bakker's book is how finely every element is balanced, how perfectly the story is paced . . . Bakker shows a fine gift for laconic comedy . . . The great pleasure of this novel is how it has just enough plot to allow us to relish its beautifully turned observations of birds and beasts, weather and water."--Tim Parks, New York Review of Books "This is a quiet book, humble in tone, with a fine, self-deprecating humor . . . It leaves the reader touched and with the impression of having seen and smelled the ever-damp Dutch platteland."--Times Literary Supplement "In this appealing metafictional outing from Bakker, an Amsterdam barber searches for the truth about his long-lost father . . . endearing quotidian scenes . . . draw the reader into speculation about [his father's] reasons for leaving Amsterdam . . . and the plot thickens with surprising revelations from his point of view back in 1977." --Publishers Weekly
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Archipelago Books
Pub date:
2025-08-12
Length:
220 pages
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