Herman Finkers would rather not have people vote for him for the NS Audience Award. Last night, the nominations for the book prize were announced, Finkers has a chance with his book ‘The course dealing with disappointments is again canceled’.
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“He is pleased with the nomination”, says Kees Schafrat, owner of the Broekhuis bookshop and good friend of Finkers. “He says it is special for someone who is not an author.”
And that is precisely the problem for Finkers, the fact that he does not consider himself a writer. That is why he gave a voting advice for Geert Mak, who has also been nominated. According to the Twente cabaret artist, this is a ‘real author’.
The book with which Finkers has been nominated is a collection of stories that he wrote over the past thirty years. “If I beat Mak with this, it doesn’t feel right”, Finkers told Schafrat.
That is why Schafrat also made the call not to vote for Finkers:
“If he had written a novel, it’s something else,” says Schafrat. “He enjoys literature and authorship.”
Still, the book is popular. A quarter of a million copies have already been sold.
Eve
In the TV program De Vooravond yesterday, the nominations announced. It was actually intended that Schafrat would sit there on behalf of Finkers. But that plan was called off a few hours in advance.
But Schafrat already had exactly in mind how he would respond to Finkers’ nomination. “I had a note in my pocket with the text: don’t vote for Herman, don’t vote for Herman, don’t vote for Herman.”
Besides Finkers and Mak, Edwin Schoon, Rutger Bregman, Astrid Holleeder and Roxane van Iperen have also been nominated:
Schafrat sees that the action not to vote for Finkers can also backfire. “You could almost say that this is a preconceived tactic”, he says. “But I don’t think this is some sort of trick.”
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