21 March 2025
By Göran R Buckhorn
Leander continues with the club’s popular Library Rowing Book Talks where authors come to talk about their rowing books.
Next author coming up is Hans Maarten van den Brink, who is going to talk about his brilliant novella On the Water on Thursday, 27 March, at 7 – 9:30 p.m.
The event with Dutch author Hans Maarten van den Brink, where he will present his novella On the Water at Leander Club, is wholly in aid of the Leander Trust, which is a registered charity (No. 284631) to advance the education of young people and their physical education by providing facilities, including grant awards, to enable and encourage rowing and sculling; and to help by providing facilities for recreation for those who need such facilities because of their youth, social or economic circumstances.
A finger buffet will be served in the club house.
On the Water is a novella which was initially published in 1998 and has since become a classic. It has been translated into 14 languages and is now in its 20th edition, and has been nominated for many awards, including the Prix Femina étranger, the Prix Médicis étranger, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the Libris Literature Prize, the Generale Bank Literature Prize, and it has won the Euregio Prize. It was translated into English by Paul Vincent.
Two young oarsmen are trained as a coxless pair by a mysterious German coach in the golden summer of pre-war Amsterdam. Through the pressure and rapture of physical exertion, teamwork and victory, Anton the shy outsider and calmly self-confident David, forge an intense relationship while the grim developments on the world stage remain at a great distance. But on the wintry eve of Holland’s liberation, Anton stands on the bank of his beloved river and mourns a lost world: David has disappeared and the boathouse is now derelict and deserted.
Hear The Boat Sing 