Publisher's Synopsis
Kaddisj voor een kut (Kaddish for a Cunt) by Dimitri Verhulst is a story about the lives of children in an institution, who are separated from a normal life. The title of the novel is chosen to depict the sad and deplorable life of the children. The narrator is witnessing the dead body of a child, and mourns his death. The narrator himself has just been released from the institution and has started a new life in society. Nasim Khaksar, about Kaddisj voor een kut: "I was in the middle of the book that I made a note: 'this is not a book to read.' I wrote that I cannot know how much these few sentences that I am writing are fitting for this bovel. You must have a heart of steel to read it. This is a book resembling a calm melody that can sometimes make you smile like a pleasant music. As it gently progresses, it is like dashing waves throwing you on the beach of your existence, in such a way that you cannot know from where these blows have come from. These waves which bring the pieces of the first hand realities address you: "Look, what has happened with the children of a seemingly innocent orphanage. Have you heard a thousand times about the realities Dimitri has depicted on these few pages, Dimitri's direct experiences put you against the wall making you believe that these painful and shocking realities are for the first time that you are hearing." The last seven sentences, by Dimitri Verhulst, born October 2, 1972 in Belgium, is an interpretation of Joseph Haydn's music entitled Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlosers am Kreuze. The seven short stories are based on the last seven sentences uttered by Jesus Christ on the Cross. Yet in these stories, there is no sign of religion. Dimitri Verhulst succeeds quite well in offering a strong and at times humorous picture of mankind's suffering in today's societies. There is, for instance, a Jewish mother who is waiting for the return of her child from Nazi camps. The author makes the reader think about life, experiencing the meaning of suffering. Using simple words and a neutral account of the events, the author bases the modern life on seven sentences, which were pronounced more than two thousand years ago on the cross. Dimitry Verhulst warns that these stories are not an interpretation of the Bible but he is actually trying to distance himself from the holy book. His stories are far from the Bible, they are inspired by people's lives, with flesh and blood, people who know love and death. A little of everyone's lives, because the author thinks that everyone should identify himself with the stories. The Dutch edition of the book is accompanied by a CD by Haydn and the author's voice reading the novel.
