Confrontations (Hardback)

Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen, Simone Atangana Bekono

A bold, unsettling, and heart-breaking story about race, belonging and the legacies of violence

Salomé was bullied for years and no one did a single thing to help her.
One day she finally snapped.
Now at just sixteen years old, she's being held in a secure unit for young offenders

Salomé's counsellor, the man whose good opinion is key to her release, is best known for his racist gaffes on reality TV. Her father has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer and her elder sister Miriam's main preoccupation is to get out of their small, close-minded village as soon as possible. Both at home and in the unit, things are unbearably tense.

Salomé finds it hard to keep her temper and harder still to think about the crime she is charged with committing. But as time passes, she finds new strength to delve into the reasons for her rage and arrive at her own understanding of punishment, penitence and the paradoxical demands made on her existence as a Black woman. Raw and unsentimental, Confrontations is a powerful depiction of racism and resilience from one of the Netherlands' most exciting new literary voices.

Publication date: 11/01/2024

£14.99

ISBN: 9781800814752

Imprint: Serpent's Tail

Subject: Biography & Memoir, Fiction

Translator: Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen

Confrontations (Ebook)

Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen, Simone Atangana Bekono

Buy from

A bold, unsettling, and heart-breaking story about race, belonging and the legacies of violence

Salomé was bullied for years and no one did a single thing to help her.
One day she finally snapped.
Now at just sixteen years old, she's being held in a secure unit for young offenders

Salomé's counsellor, the man whose good opinion is key to her release, is best known for his racist gaffes on reality TV. Her father has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer and her elder sister Miriam's main preoccupation is to get out of their small, close-minded village as soon as possible. Both at home and in the unit, things are unbearably tense.

Salomé finds it hard to keep her temper and harder still to think about the crime she is charged with committing. But as time passes, she finds new strength to delve into the reasons for her rage and arrive at her own understanding of punishment, penitence and the paradoxical demands made on her existence as a Black woman. Raw and unsentimental, Confrontations is a powerful depiction of racism and resilience from one of the Netherlands' most exciting new literary voices.

Publication date: 11/01/2024

£12.99

ISBN: 9781800814776

Imprint: Serpent's Tail

Subject: Biography & Memoir, Fiction

Translator: Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen

Confrontations (Audiobook)

Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen, Simone Atangana Bekono

Buy from

A bold, unsettling, and heart-breaking story about race, belonging and the legacies of violence

Salomé was bullied for years and no one did a single thing to help her.
One day she finally snapped.
Now at just sixteen years old, she's being held in a secure unit for young offenders

Salomé's counsellor, the man whose good opinion is key to her release, is best known for his racist gaffes on reality TV. Her father has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer and her elder sister Miriam's main preoccupation is to get out of their small, close-minded village as soon as possible. Both at home and in the unit, things are unbearably tense.

Salomé finds it hard to keep her temper and harder still to think about the crime she is charged with committing. But as time passes, she finds new strength to delve into the reasons for her rage and arrive at her own understanding of punishment, penitence and the paradoxical demands made on her existence as a Black woman. Raw and unsentimental, Confrontations is a powerful depiction of racism and resilience from one of the Netherlands' most exciting new literary voices.

Publication date: 11/01/2024

£24.99

ISBN: 9781800819788

Imprint: Serpent's Tail

Subject: Biography & Memoir, Fiction

Translator: Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen

Read by: Ella Dacres

Simone Atangana Bekono

Simone Atangana Bekono