The writer as accomplice
Writers like to give bad guys their say. In her debut novel Muidhond, shortlisted for the ECI Literature Prize, forensic psychologist Inge Schilperoord knows how to generate sympathy for Jonathan, a convicted pedophile. In Alles verandert (Everything Changes), which plays a virtuostic game with John Coetzee's novel Disgrace, Kristien Hemmerechts gives voice to Iris, who has inappopriate sexual contact with a student but shifts from offender to victim. Are Schilperoord and Hemmerechts accomplices to the unconscionable deeds of their characters?