A stunning debut novel from the well-know Dutch interviewer Pieter Webeling.

Jennifer, a level-headed Dutch journalist, receives an unusual request. She is asked to write a biography of her sister who is terminally ill, so that David, her nephew, will have a document to remember his mother by. It is also an emotionally charged request because Jennifer has had a loving relationship with David’s father. Because of her sister’s deceit, Jennifer’s life changed course tragically.

At first Jennifer refuses. It’s demanding the impossible. Later she decides to try, if only for David, a serious and innocent young boy who’s always glad to see his aunt. In the forty days Jennifer has to portray her sister, she repeatedly discovers her sibling is always one step ahead of her.

This novel is particularly moving because of the moral dilemmas with which Jennifer is confronted. Pieter Webeling has brilliantly managed to place himself in the emotions of a young woman, and has written an accessible and thrilling story, which keeps you guessing until the last page.

‘The phenomenal interviewer Webeling has written a novel, and with it has crossed a boundary. His characters know no bounds either!’ — Adriaan van Dis

‘With Forty Days, Webeling has written a novel in which you can sense that something personal is at stake. To become a spectator of your own life is a way to escape the suffering. But Webeling has done more than that. He looks suffering straight in the eye.’ – NRC Handelsblad