Breakwater

• Widely compared to the work of Ian McEwan, with an ending that mocks classical forms and norms
• Marijke Schermer’s debut novel, published in 2016, before Love, If That’s What It Is, but never translated into English
• World Editions has published Schermers 2nd book already in 2022, to a great Publishers Weekly review: “The author expertly humanizes each of the characters’ desires and flaws as she illuminates the raw, inner workings of a broken marriage. This is as cathartic as it is gut-churning. (Feb.)”
• As she did in Love, If That’s What It Is, Schermer brings forth the unspoken paradoxes that lurk in every household; the need to be sheltered versus the desire to be free, the craving for intimacy versus the inability to share one’s secrets
• A woman who seems to have it all is haunted by a traumatic experience of sexual violence in her past, which she has kept hidden from her husband and her inability to tell him drives the couple apart
• Timely climate-change angle, as heavy rains and flooding mirror the main character’s emotional turmoil
• Schermer’s knife-sharp observations about human behavior and the incompetence to express oneself and really communicate with each other are absolutely masterful
• A refreshingly non-conformist take on marriage and the loss of personal identity that comes with it
• Breakwater is currently being made into a film
• Books about marriage and secrets are a category in their own right, with lots of dedicated readers
• Books about Marriage and Secret titles on Book Riot https://bookriot.com/books-about-marriage-and-secrets/
• Rights sold: Germany (Kampa Verlag), Denmark (Grif), Spain (Alfaguara)
• Shortlisted for the ECI Literary Prize 2017