Overview

'Joyful, tender, and strangely relatable . . . With sharp, playful prose, Veldman tells a story in equal parts searing intelligence and madcap sweetness. Simply brilliant.' Jenny Mustard This is a story of girl meets printer. A customer service assistant spends her long workdays printing letters. Her one friend is the printer and, in the dark confines of her office, she begins to open up to him, talking about her fears, her past, her hopes and dreams. To her, it seems like a beautiful friendship is blossoming. To her boss, it seems like she’s losing her mind. Diagnosed with burnout and placed on leave, she faces severance and – worse – separation from her beloved printer. But she’s not about to give up on her only friend without a fight. And, it turns out, neither is he… Weird, incisive and unforgettable, Hard Copy is perfect for fans of Sayaka Murata and Halle Butler.

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9781035906451

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Reviews

Despite its whimsical premise, Hard Copy is at its heart a joyful, tender, and strangely relatable novel. With sharp, playful prose Veldman tells a story in equal parts searing intelligence and madcap sweetness. Simply brilliant. -- Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days This novel has it all. It's smart, captivating, poignant, absurd, moving, and terribly funny. * Jente Posthuma, author of What I'd Rather Not Think About * Intimate and surprising at every turn, Hard Copy's distinct narrative voice took me right in from page one. A truly one-of-a-kind novel: I loved it. -- Sarah Maria Griffin, author of Other Words for Smoke Rounded with sharp observations and surprising humour, Hard Copy is an incisive commentary on social isolation – a young woman’s desperate search for connection in these late-capitalist times. * Anindita Ghose, author of The Illuminated * Dryly comic... You regularly wonder who is more disturbed here, the protagonist or society. * Het Parool * A weird, understated and very well written book about a millennial meltdown * Havermelkelite * A beautiful, at times absurdist and moving debut * Boekblad * In clear, bright language, Fien Veldman accurately depicts a world, a social background, that eats its way through the individual... A novel like an autopsy. -- Manon Uphoff Absurdist and inventive. Fien Veldman knows how to deal with contemporary cultural phenomena, and she always approaches them astutely and surprisingly' * Tzum * Wondrous * Noordhollands Dagblad * A beautiful book * Friesch Dagblad *

Author Information

Fien Veldman (1990) is 2022's recipient of the Joost Zwagerman Essay-award for her essay ‘Not really making it’, about growing up in a working-class neighbourhood in Leeuwarden. In 2018 she won the Elise Mathilde Essay Award for her essay ‘Borders, doors and eyes open’. From 2010 until 2016, she worked as a theatre critic. (And, of course, she has also worked in customer service.) Hard Copy is her debut novel.

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