Gilles van der Loo

(Breda, 1973) studied clinical psychology and worked for fifteen years in Italian restaurants primarily. He made his debut in 2010 in the literary magazine Tirade, of which he would be an editor later and published columns, blogs and short stories in a wide range of places. In 2012 his stories were compiled by Van Oorschot Publishers as Hier sneeuwt het nooit (Here it never snows). For his characters, varying from an elderly couple losing a son to a black busdriver in New York just before 9/11, he shows empathy par excellence. In the narrative stratagies and his strongly rhythmic strategies the anthology is a remarkable contribution to Dutch storytelling. The short story ‘David’ was adapted for film by Bram van Splunteren for VPRO’s Café de Liefde. In October 2013 Van Oorschot published his novel Het laatste kind (The last child). In this book Van der Loo shows he is the chronicler of loss in profoundly sensitive portraits.