Surrender on Demand

A biting tale about class and destiny - told through an endearing anti-hero named Shellfish.

Shellfish grows up in a Dutch coastal village polluted by the local steel plant. The factory or the distribution centre: these are the choices ahead. Both are work in places without windows, dictated by the clock. But Shellfish dreams of a different future: to no longer serve, but be a master.

Will Shellfish succeed in breaking free? If we cannot outgrow the circumstances we were born in, does that mean we've failed at life?

Surrender on Demand is about the difference between people who get to choose their future and those who have to suffer their fate. About villagers and day-trippers. About casual violence. And about seagulls. A carnivalesque, satirical, intense, big, small novel about class and destiny. Perfect for fans of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, The Melting by Lize Split and Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval.

'Get ready to fall in love with De Vries's playful pen and unrelenting view of mankind. Surrender on Demand is gorgeous and strange and somehow familiarly human, Dickens in a sharp modern jacket' - Yael van der Wouden, Women's Prize-winning author of The Safekeep

'De Vries writes flawlessly, humorously and with restraint and precision. This applies to every sentence, every chapter and everything that happens in this compact, yet grand novel' - Trouw

'A very dark novel that is at the same time remarkably light and funny, like a contemporary version of a Dickensian story' - De Volkskrant