Always something
Flanders, early 21st century. The third road has ended in a dead end, the model state is in ruins. Copywriter Joris Vangenechten is 26 and has just been thrown out of their Leuven apartment by his girlfriend. He returns to his native village to find that nothing ever changes there. Except for the circumstances, that is. To get away from that 'stupid hamlet, with its stupid factory and its stupid café', he follows a childhood sweetheart to Antwerp. A novel about a generation that crawls out of the housing estate in a disillusioned world with only one certainty: whatever happens, it is always something. A novel about a piece of the world, in a piece of time. A novel about circumstances, and how they will inevitably change. Groenten uit Balen, the next generation. Joachim Pohlmann (°1981) studied political and social sciences and anthropology at the KU Leuven. He lives in Antwerp and works in Brussels as a speechwriter for Bart De Wever. 'Altijd Iets' is his debut novel.