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“With unnerving conviction, this novel inhabits the mind, heart and voice of Belgium's 'most hated woman,' the ex-wife of murderer Marc Dutroux—the authenticity makes for a compelling narrative." —Blake Morrison
Odette sits in her prison cell preparing for imminent release. Between brief interludes of counsel from Sister Virginie and Anouk, the prison psychiatrist, she is left alone to labor through the memories of her former life. Obsessive and reflective, yet crucially lacking in remorse, Odette's testimony is a tricky script to untangle. Based on the real-life events of Michelle Martin, ex-wife of the notorious child abductor, murderer, and serial rapist, Marc Dutroux, this is a fictionalized account of the inner workings of Martin's mind before, during, and after the crimes that shook a nation in the 1990s. The excuses and abuses of this killer's accomplice make for a brave exploration of psychological trauma, and the slide towards its most extreme of consequences. In The Woman Who Fed the Dogs, Hemmerechts has produced a daring novel that positions the reader uncomfortably close to the human behind these unforgivable acts.
“In The Woman Who Fed the Dogs by the Belgian writer Kristien Hemmerechts, the main character has committed the unforgivable sin: she is an accomplice to a paedophile and murderer, has let his crime happen in their shared home, has witnessed everything without intervening. Now she is in prison, without her children. The offender in this novel doesn't hope to receive forgiveness for herself but for her children." —Asymptote
“With unnerving conviction, this novel inhabits the mind, heart and voice of Belgium's 'most hated woman,' the ex-wife of murderer Marc Dutroux—the authenticity makes for a compelling narrative." —Blake Morrison
“Without sympathizing or showing understanding for Martin, Hemmerechts shows us the inner workings of the mind of a woman with a horrific past and an uncertain future." —Flanders Today
“A daring but successful endeavor to paint a probing psychological portrait of a complex … an intense evocation of an unusual, intriguing relationship, astonishing and sometimes provocative in all its directness." —Flanders Literature
“This penetrating portrait … will haunt you long after reading, and throws up more questions than answers, as all good literature should." —NBD Biblion
“Kristien Hemmerechts has produced a macabre work of art." —Vrij Nederland
“Brilliantly written … With this book, Hemmerechts has pulled off a very compelling thought experiment with an ingeniously developed main character. All this in fluent prose, which makes the book a real page-turner." —Hebban
“With her latest offering, Hemmerechts evokes compassion and fascination … If you can accomplish that while simultaneously creating confusion and discomfort among your readers regarding the topic of evil … then you are great. Huge." —ZiN Magazine
Paul Vincent is a Dutch-to-English translator based in London. He studied at Cambridge and in Amsterdam, and after teaching Dutch at the University of London for over twenty years became a full-time translator in 1989. Since then he has published a wide variety of translated poetry, non-fiction, and fiction, including work by Achterberg, Claus, Couperus, Elsschot, Jellema, Mulisch, De Moor, and Van den Brink. He is a member of the Society of Dutch Literature in Leiden, and has won the Reid Prize for poetry translation, the Vondel Prize for Dutch-English translation, and (jointly) the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize.