Turning Van Dis into a Graphic Novel

Peter van Dongen turned Adriaan van Dis' Familieziek into a graphic novel; about an Indonesian family trying to land on their feet in the Netherlands of the 1950s.

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2018 22:30 tot 23:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2

Peter van Dongen has turned Familieziek (Family Disease), the autobiographical novel by Adriaan van Dis, into a graphic novel. It is a story told in scenes about an Indonesian family affected by the war, which tries to land on their feet in the Netherlands of the 1950s.

Van Dongen worked closely with Van Dis on the project. During Writers Unlimited, the graphic novelist looks back on this collaboration, including the exciting relationship between the words of the writer and the images of the artist and the story that binds it all together.

It's not surprising that the two authors understand one another. In 1998, Van Dongen - child of an Indonesian mother and Dutch-German father - caused a stir with Rampokan: Java, a historical and psychological graphic novel in clear-line style that takes place during the colonial war fought by the Netherlands in the former Dutch Indies. Part two, Rampokan: Celebes, was published in 2004.

The former Dutch Indies are also central to Familieziek. The 2002 novel is about a family from the colonies that builds a new life in the Netherlands.

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Peter van Dongen

(Amsterdam, 1966) is a graphic novelist and illustrator. In 1990 his Muizentheater (The Mice Theatre), appeared, about two brothers in a time of crisis and war. It won him the Stripschap-penning (a Dutch cartoonists' prize) for best album. In 1998 and 2004 he published Rampokan: Java and Rampokan: Celebes, a diptych set on the eve of the colonial war the Dutch fought in Indonesia. These books have meanwhile appeared in French, German and Indonesian translation. For Dutch daily NRC's Literary Supplement, Van Dongen drew fifty writers portraits. November 2017 he published Familieziek (Family Sickness), his graphic-novel adaptation of the novel Repatriated (2002) by Adriaan van Dis; it is a story about an Indonesian family, survivors of the Japanese camps, that tries to settle in the Netherlands during the fifties.
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Paul van der Gaag

(Netherlands, 1958) has produced and presented the VPRO radio programme OVT since 2002, a two-hour show about the historical roots of current events as well as newly released historical books, films, commemorations, and anything else related to history. The show features live interviews, reportage, columns and a weekly documentary during the last half hour. He was already linked to OVT since 1992 as a programmer and previously freelanced for other national Dutch broadcasters such as VARA and IKON.
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