All that is gone (November 2007)

Susan Smit (1974) had worked as an international model for ten years when she got fed up with the world of appearances and finished her Master’s degree in Cultural Studies at the University of Amsterdam. As a freelance publicist she worked for major Dutch publications, and she writes columns for Marie Claire and Happinez. She currently reviews books for Avantgarde and the national breakfast TV-show Goedemorgen Nederland.


Susan Smit - All that is gone (Wat er niet meer is)
Paperback, 128 pages
Publication date: November 2007


A passionate tale of love, music and desire, written in a characteristic clear and confident voice.
Loving someone teaches one about the ego; my love is all about my feelings and about what the other means to me. It’s irrelevant if those feelings are reciprocated. And thus love survives death.

During a long night in the shelter of a prostitute’s work room, Thomas, a librettist, tells his story. He mourns the death of the pianist Judith. She was the only woman who ever reached him, but she turned out to be married. He looks back on their platonic love. Now that she’s gone her wandering soul seems closer than she has ever been in life and he has erotic encounters with her that leave him utterly confused.

Relationships are always permeated with an awareness of death. Love can only touch us so deeply, because we know that one day it will all disappear. It rots, tears, fades away. It goes by. But it is never really gone. What once was, echoes and lives on in other things. That is true victory.

The only person who can help Thomas find his way out of his obsessive love for Judith is her husband Egbert, whom he always hated. Egbert is the only man who can clarify the mysteries of the unapproachable woman Thomas adored, and turn his muse into a normal human being.

When does one truly know someone? At the first argument? At discovering her first little lie? At seeing her when she feels horribly sick? I dare say that the only moment to truly get to know a person is the moment she has an orgasm. A woman is completely herself when she comes, by fits and starts, swearing, sweet, screaming, softly or subdued. This is the moment you catch a glimpse of her true nature, of the animal she is.

Susan Smit’s previous novel Elena sold 15.000 copies in one month

Praise for Elena:

‘A beautiful novel exposing a wide range of feelings such as inner strength, love, forgiveness, passion and magic’ De Telegraaf

‘A tribute to women of all ages’ Body & Mind

‘Exceptionally moving’ Libelle

‘Magic stirs even the down to earth Dutch senses, as Smit shows in Elena’ Marie Claire


Foreign Rights:

Synopsis & translation of the first two chapters of All that is gone available in English ->

Press file available on request


VICKI SATLOW LITERARY AGENCY
Via Alberto Gussano 16
20145 Milano
Italy

Tel: 0039 0248015553
Fax: 0039 0291390742
e-mail: vickisatlow@tin.it


Dutch Publishing house:
Dutch Media Uitgevers bv
Lebowski Publishers
Sarphatistraat 610-612
1018 AV Amsterdam

Tel. +31 20 531 7450
Fax +31 20 531 7460

Oscar van Gelderen:
oscar@dutch-media.nl
or
oscarvangelderen@gmail.com