Bøger af Gerda Blees

In the middle of a summer night, Elisabeth, the oldest resident of the Sound & Love Commune, dies. Her sister Melodie and their two other housemates are arrested: the group''s attempts to stop eating and start living on light and love alone appears to have been fatal to Elisabeth. From unworldly idealists on the fringes of society, the three suddenly become suspects in a criminal case. Through the eyes of the night, the neighbours, doubt, the scent of an orange, and many other characters and entities, we see how each of those involved gives a different answer to the question of how Elisabeth came to die. Who is to blame? And does the commune still have a future? We Are Light is a highly original novel about manipulation, vulnerability, and what leads people to reject science as they try to be better.

"In Gerda Blees's novel We Are Light, a woman's quiet, bizarre death exposes the tragic gap between ethics and legality. The leader of the Sound & Love Commune, Melodie manipulates loyalty and obedience from her small group of followers. When she tells them they can survive on light rather than food, they listen, even as Melodie's sister Elisabeth starves to death before their eyes. The story of how all of this came to pass, and whether the law has the power to punish Melodie for her lies, comes together link by link, forming a grim, unbreakable chain that binds the commune together, even in death. It's an unconventional story, told via the settings, objects, and feelings that played a role in it, as with the house where Elisabeth's death occurred and the cello that Melodie once loved but could never make a career with. Some voices are focused and sure of themselves, while others lapse into stream-of-consciousness style, spilling their feelings with a freedom that they can't manage in person. The story itself chimes in at one point to confirm what has become more obvious: it will end with no surprises, no shocking revelations or happy-ever-afters. And yet it remains as hypnotizing as ever, exploring every nook and cranny of the cult members' damaged psyches. Even once the critical events are laid out, questions remain about who is guilty, what guilt is, and which actions merit punishment. There are no easy answers, or even easy questions. In the end, all that remains is the eerie, discomfiting realization that common notions of justice, culpability, and innocence are more fragile than they seem to be. We Are Light is a haunting novel in which obsession, mental illness, and deferred dreams lead to complex, compounding tragedies."--Provided by publisher.

Midden in een zomernacht sterft Elisabeth, de oudste bewoonster van de spirituele woongroep Klank en Liefde. Haar drie huisgenoten worden aangehouden: het streven van de groep om te stoppen met eten en van licht, lucht en liefde te gaan leven, lijkt Elisabeth fataal te zijn geworden. Van wereldvreemde idealisten aan de rand van de maatschappij zijn de drie plotseling landelijk nieuws geworden.Door de ogen van de nacht, de buren, de twijfel, de vader van een van de huisgenoten, een sinaasappelgeur en vele andere personages en entiteiten zien we hoe elk van de betrokkenen een ander antwoord geeft op de vraag hoe Elisabeth kon overlijden, wie er schuldig is, en of de woongroep nog toekomst heeft.Een beklemmende en tegelijkertijd hoogst vermakelijke roman over kleine mensen in een grote wereld, en hun verbindende maar ook vernietigende verlangen om in verheven idealen te geloven. Met haar stilistische beheersing en ingenieus vertelperspectief schreef Blees een meesterlijk debuut.Gerda Blees (1985) won, net als voorheen schrijvers als Manon Uphoff, Edwin Mortier, Maartje Wortel en Arnon Grunberg, in 2016 de Nieuw Proza Prijs voor haar verhaal ‘Zomerkroos’. Eerder publiceerde ze in Tirade en Hollands Maandblad. In 2018 verscheen haar poëziedebuut Dwaallichten.