His book was very well received in the Netherlands, both by the public and by critics. Here it is translated into French under the title of The honorable collector.
“Débacle”, the first novel by Lize Spit
We find in this novel, the fictional village where the cruel children’s games of Debacle were taking place. We are in the 90s with Jimmy, eleven years old, a very good student, but poorly integrated into his class and into his family.
His passion is collecting stickers flippos which we then found in packets of crisps. He dreams of having the complete collections and being the greatest collector of flippos in the world. To find and buy bags of chips, he searches for forgotten change in cash machines.
Take the plunge
His meeting with Tristan changes his life. A little older than him, he is the son of a Kosovar refugee family. Tristan ends up in his class and Jimmy takes him under his wing, helps him with his homework and teaches him Flemish.
gullThe longer he waited to decide, the less courage he had to be a coward.
As a sign of his friendship, he wants to make a second collection of flippos to give it to Tristan. Both dream of creating a company that would sell “puree chips”, “papriboulga” they call it.
But the refugee family receives an order to leave the territory. The whole village is worried. Tristan and his sister Jetmira have a plan that involves Jimmy. They read about refugees who were granted asylum because of their brilliant actions, such as saving people from fires or drowning.
They suggest Jimmy simulate drowning in the Albert Canal. Tristan will pretend to pass by and jump into the water to save Jimmy.
To prepare for this, Tristan and his sister put Jimmy through training such as staying fifteen minutes in a bathtub of cold water, made icy by throwing in all the frozen products from the fridge.
Nothing will be said about the continuation of this plan and its outcome, leaving the suspense.
“I’m not here”, the second novel by Lize Spit
Lize Spit was inspired by the story of the Zenelaj, a Kosovar family of ten people who arrived in the village of Viersel in 1998, and were threatened with expulsion in 1999. But thanks to the massive support of the inhabitants of Viersel, the asylum was finally could be granted to the whole family.
Already in Debacle, Lize Spit took us into the perverse games of three young teenagers from a Flemish village. She showed how she knew how to construct a novel with suspense, to the point of arousing a sort of fear in the reader. Here showing the same qualities, and in this novel which is more of a long story, all the characters are well defined in their emotions, their generosity and their behaviors of pre-adolescents immersed in the very sensitive question of immigration.
⇒ The honorable collector | Novel | Lize Spitz, translated from Dutch (Belgium) by Emmanuelle Tardif | Actes Sud, 137 pp. €16, digital €12
EXTRACT
“Just a canal,” Jimmy repeated loudly, “not the sea. But how could he relax with these two, who in the past had seen people drown before their eyes? They could well decide to leave if things went wrong and no one would ever know that there was a plan, a consultation. ”
