books
A journey with the prince
In the spring of 1951 Prince Bernhard, with private secretary Frans de Graaff in his wake, made a goodwill trip to South America. While doing so, he also visited the Argentina of Juan and Eva Perón. The trip is fraught because Perón is considered a dictator in the Netherlands. De Graaff must guard Bernhard from making mistakes, but how do you do that in the shadow of a man who thinks himself untouchable?
Seventy years later, writer Arthur Umbgrove gets his hands on the archives of the private secretary, his great uncle. In it are a number of intriguing documents. He travels to Argentina to follow the traces of his great uncle. There he discovers information about a possible diplomatic riot on a global scale, which was narrowly avoided, and the necessary revelations surrounding the dissolute life of the prince and his entourage.
The deconstruction of satire
Knack ****
With a dystopian vision of the future, the Dutch novelist Arthur Umbgrove begins a pamphlet that aims to save the satire from destruction.
De morgen
In his pamphlet The reconstruction of satire he makes a pithy plea for humor that explores the edges
Financieel Dagblad
Umbgrove lists a disturbing list of creators, publishers and broadcasters who, after objections or even threats, apologized for the jokes they are responsible for.
De Telegraaf
In The reconstruction of satire, Umbgrove skilfully and clearly explains the rules of (good) satire and why it is so important.
What we know
2017
De Telegraaf ****
It's a relief how Umbgrove works, not soft or blunt, but sober and honest. ( ) What we know is certainly not a pamphlet against refugees, but Umbgrove subtly puts its finger on the sore spot.
Knack ****
Umbgrove cleverly avoids the trap of ideological clichés by regularly intervening in his story and commenting on his own novel.
Het Nederlands Dagblad
If we hadn't yet understood it from the newspaper or from politics, this novel makes it crystal clear: the refugee problem cannot be approached one-dimensionally. There are no easy answers.
Hebban ****
What we know is a beautiful narrative of how little we know.
onlybyme.nl
What I find special is that the refugee problem is really illuminated from all sides in an incredibly ingenious way, making it almost impossible to hold on to one fixed opinion about this problem.
In the nporadio1 program
The News BV
actor Jeroen Spitzenberger read a chapter.
Paradise Village
2015
A father and his 11-year-old son travel the western United States in a Ford Mustang. It's not just any man-to-man vacation: the father is on the run from the press after the bank of which he is the chairman of the board had to be bailed out by the government. The indignation about his bonus is so great that he decides to leave in a hurry. During their journey, the father discovers that he doesn't really know his son: he was hardly ever at home, and when he was there, he hardly paid any attention to the boy, who performs poorly at school and has few friends. Who is that kin? Why is it so different from its peers? In America he finally gets to know his son.
Trouw
Paradise Village is highly recommended: highly amusing and very educational.
De Telegraaf
A successful novel.
Algemeen Dagblad
Arthur Umbgrove skilfully uses two voices in the amusing Paradise Village: one sharp, the other disarming.
Psychology Magazine
A funny and heartbreaking road novel.
Cleeft.nl
A beautiful story of father and son in Paradise Village of Umbgrove.
Hotel Sofia
2012
Seventeen-year-old Sofia takes care of her ailing father Harold, in
their home in Italy which she cynically calls Hotel Sofia. She discovers that
her father had three friends with whom he loved
and suffering, but with whom he no longer has contact. Sofia
manages to find them, and they decide to travel to Italy to find their
old friend to visit before he dies.
Arthur Umbgrove takes the reader into the student life of
the eighties and describes painfully accurately how the boys
have grown up since then. Hotel Sofia is a mosaic
story about the power and fragility of friendship.
Knack
Throat-grabbing imagery... downright grandiose... a master of dialogue... hard as hell
De Telegraaf
A gripping novel about the fragility of friendship and the sweet memories of former childhood friends'
JAN
Sparkling and moving novel
Books.blogo.nl
Hotel Sofia grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. Beautifully written, five stars and kudos!
Haarlem Dagblad
Umbgrove draws the characters very sharply...refreshing, well-told story
Brabants Dagblad
Arthur Umbgrove who, with Sofia, brought to life perhaps the most interesting character of the book year.
Knack
put Hotel Sofia in the top five of the best Dutch books of 2012.
The Pulse of the earth
2008
An old man who has been living in a nursing home for thirty-eight years and who has lost his memory all this time suddenly appears to remember things from the past.
He writes them down, 'because otherwise it would be as if I had never existed'. Only a fifteen-year-old girl who delivers the coffee in the house is allowed to read them. The girl who speaks only to her parents and sister and not a word to strangers begins a search for his past and tries to find out what happened thirty-eight years ago. In the process, she comes across an old book by a world-renowned geologist, The Heartbeat of the Earth, which deals with global warming and cooling. Who is the author of that masterpiece? And how can she make sure the old man gets his life back before it's too late?
Nu.nl
Immersive and impressive. The way Umbgrove weaves fact with fiction is intriguing
De Morgen
Brave and boyish…a beauty of a dramatic situation…a striking novel…his story is an ultimate confession, his will to the world
password
The punch line hits like a hammer blow. All points go to Umbgrove
De Telegraaf
A great novel that leaves you curious for the next one.
GEO
Crystal clear written short, often brilliant sentences.
GPD
A compelling story about a man who takes stock of his life
In the middle of the road,
as hard as possible
as hard as possible
2006
Arthur, the main character of In the middle of the read, as hard as possible, inherits the Brabant farm from his grandfather. In the attic he finds a box of wartime letters from his grandfather addressed to his grandmother. In those letters he tells about his work as a spy for the Allies. Did his grandfather want him to find this collection of letters? And how was it possible that his grandfather wrote so openly to his wife about his espionage work during the war? How authentic are those letters exactly?
Arthur, the same age as his grandfather at the time of the war, decides to follow his tracks and travels to Germany and Switzerland in an attempt to uncover the truth about the past.
During this quest, he discovers all kinds of things that have a major impact on his own life and finds out that he is more like his grandfather than he thought. He makes an important decision.
Awarded the LiBra Debutante Award
Nominated for the Anton Wachter Debut Prize 2006
Nominated for the Selexyz Debut Prize 2007
De Morgen
Umbgrove has written a particularly moving story about his search for a figure on which he projects his personal ideal image
Elsevier
Compelling tribute to a spying grandfather.
A special book about a special person.
Financieel Dagblad
The search for grandfather's past through Germany and Switzerland gives this novel a great allure. Applause!
password
Beautiful, relaxed and witty.
Paul de Leeuw
Wonderful, wonderfully beautiful story.
An incredibly impressive book.
LIBRA . jury report
A story as wonderful as it is realistic as it is hilarious as it is moving, a book with social urgency.