ILJA LEONARD PFEIFFER
Netherlands
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (1968) is a Dutch writer. He writes poetry, plays, essays, columns, reports, short stories, political satire and novels in the style of Rabelais. Half of the critics consider him a genius, and the other half a retro stylist. His most recently published poetry collection is the first book of poetry ever to win the three biggest poetry awards in the Netherlands. Since 2008 he lives in Genoa, Italy.
La Superba
Translation: Elizabeta Bozhinoska
This book is the work of one of the most important contemporary European writers, who decided to write a love letter not to the city where he was born but to the Italian city where he lives. Genoa is called La Superba because of its beauty and rich history. The main hero, in whom we recognize features of the author himself, explores the wild side of this mysterious and exotic city, full of labyrinths and magic. This book is like a pocket edition of Dante's Inferno, written by an author who enjoys going to extremes, a true master of language and storytelling.
The novel La Superba has been critically acclaimed since its publication in 2013, when it won the Libristhe most prestigious literary award in the Netherlands, and the Zumthe award "for the most beautiful sentence written in the Dutch language".