The discovery of Urk: A village versus the world

What happens when a Fleming settles in the most closed and orthodox fishing village of the Dutch Bible Belt? Just a two-hour drive from Flanders lies a Dutch village that seems to have fallen out of time: no Dutchman, let alone a Belgian, understands what drives the people there. Urk, a former island in the Zuiderzee (now part of Flevoland on the IJsselmeer), in the north of the Netherlands, is a seemingly closed and suspicious community, which lives mainly from fish and clings to the Bible. Or are appearances deceptive? Journalist and writer Matthias MR Declercq will live in Urk for six months in 2019, in the heart of the village. He will go fishing, praying and drinking. Step by step, the reality of Urk reveals itself. Declercq sees a gentle and God-fearing people, but also increasingly discovers a shadowy world, with youthful mischief, despair, fish fraud and drugs. Nothing is what it seems.