Gaea Schoeters: Trophäe

Gaea Schoetersʼ award-winning novel has an extraordinary narrative power. By taking up elements of the genre of "colonial hunting literature", Schoeters exposes the colonial white view of the African continent. Told in an exciting way and with a view of nature that is reminiscent of nature writing, the novel describes the clash between the locals and the trophy hunters who have arrived and whose moral concepts are fundamentally shaken. Hunter, a filthy rich American and avid hunter, had almost everything before the run. Finally, his friend Van Heeren offers him a rhino to shoot. Hunter travels to Africa, but his project to complete the Big Five is abruptly thwarted by poachers. Hunter seeks revenge when Van Heeren asks him if he has ever heard of the Big Six. In the end, the question remains: what is a human life worth?

Gaea Schoeters, born in 1976, is a Flemish author, journalist, librettist and screenwriter. In 2012, she won the Jan Wauters Grand Prize for her creative use of language. She was awarded the Sabam for Culture literary prize for Trophy. The novel received very positive reviews in the Dutch press. In 2024 her novel Trophäe, translated from Dutch by Lisa Mensing, was published by Zsolnay.

The reading takes place with the kind support of Flanders Literature.

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