Nothing for the family

As a young man, Walter van den Broeck was fascinated by his step-uncle Jaak. It was a fascination from a distance, as happens when you are young. You do not really understand how adults are put together at that moment. Many years later, Walter van den Broeck really gets to know who Jaak Jacobs was, a groundbreaking modernist architect with a complicated love life, the stepfather of the poet Hugues C. Pernath. Nothing for the family is the equally compelling and hilarious story of the search for Jaak. It goes without saying that Walter van den Broeck also encounters himself along the way, so that this novel develops into an essential addition to Van den Broeck's rich family saga. Walter van den Broeck (1941) is – against his will – the éminence grise of Flemish literature. His oeuvre is full of classics, with Letter to Boudewijn, The Siege of Laken and Vegetables from Balen as the best-known titles. His plays are still often performed by companies throughout Flanders. Together with Guido Van Meir, Van den Broeck adapted Groenten uit Balen for the silver screen. He received the Flemish Culture Prize for Literature for both his prose and his plays.