I'm going to learn to read Dutch so I don't have to wait that long.

It's also a wonderful coming-of-age and 'coming out' (as much as that was possible during that time) story, and as an added bonus there's a romance that's to-die-for - at least for someone like me who likes it slow and awkward and sweet. It's a fantastic historical novel - as someone who knows quite a bit about that time and Oscar Wilde's life in particular I have to say the author does an amazing job playing with the people from that time, interweaving their lives with that of the main character. One day, he meets a customer who will later introduce him to a whole new world - homosexual Victorian London, including the circle of men around Oscar Wilde. It's set in the 1890s, and it's the story of Adrian Mayfield, a young shop boy. In fact, it's the kind of book I always wanted to write, or at least to exist, back during the days of the height of my Oscar Wilde obsession.

Zwigtman is one of the great modern writers of books for young adults.I absolutely loved this book. The raw, breathtaking writing of this sharp, historical portrait really makes the reader think about life. Schijnbewegingen by Floortje Zwigtman, Jun 22, 2018, Luitingh Sijthoff edition, paperback Schijnbewegingen (edition) Open Library It looks like you're offline. This is a result of Zwigtman’s unique ability to combine critical distance with open intimacy. It draws the reader in without resorting to cheap sensationalism. Tricks of the Trade is an intense book that is difficult to put down. Then he faces the choice of whether to put his integrity and his friendships on the line so that he doesn’t have to live in a mouldy, cockroach-infested garret. In a male brothel he discovers the flip side of his new life in the twofaced London of the nineteenth century, where gossip, blackmail and brutal police violence make homosexuality a highly dangerous way of life. Until, that is, London’s beau monde decamps to Europe for the summer holidays, as happens every year.Īdrian, by now accustomed to luxury, ends up without any income. Everything appears to be going swimmingly. The work pays well and he meets the most interesting and powerful people of his time.Īdrian is very pleased with his new life at first. He introduces Adrian to the flamboyant circle of Oscar Wilde, where he meets other men like Augustus and finds work as an artist’s model. The man is Augustus Trops, a second-rate artist from Flanders.

It’s not a scenario that the street-hardened lad could have envisaged: a wealthy older gentleman falls in love with him and takes him home. However, a different career lies in store for him. Floortje Zwigtman, author of Schijnbewegingen, on LibraryThing. Adrian Mayfield is born in the poor East End of Victorian London, the son of a pub landlord and a seamstress. Tricks of the Trade is Zwigtman’s best novel to date. Schijnbewegingen, het eerste deel van de meesterlijk geschreven Groene Bloem-trilogie van Floortje Zwigtman, is nu weer als los boek verkrijgbaar.