Marieke Lucas Rijneveld is the author of The Discomfort of Evening. Marieke grew up on and still works at a Dutch dairy farm. She grew up in a strict Christian family and had a brother who died at a young age. In this novel, Jas is a ten year old Dutch girl on a dairy farm. Jas' parents are very strict Christians. Her older brother, Matthies, died during an ice skating competition when he fell into the thin ice of the canal. Jas' family does not talk about their grief. Gradually everyone in the family of five starts to fall into a state of emotional disturbance. Actually, this is a highly disturbing book. I chose it because it is up for an international Booker award and is being translated into many languages. I found myself cringing and disgusted many times as I read it. To compound the grief of the family, foot and mouth disease comes to the Dutch countryside and every cow on the dairy farm has to be slaughtered. This is not a book about happy times yet I was compelled to continue reading until the very last page.
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