Dirk-Jan Arensman Book order (chronological)

Horace Hopper, raised on a Nevada sheep ranch by the caring Mr. and Mrs. Reese, grapples with feelings of inadequacy stemming from his mixed Paiute and Irish heritage. Despite their intentions to pass the ranch to him, Horace feels he doesn't belong and seeks to forge his own identity. Driven by a desire to prove himself, he leaves behind the only family he's known to pursue a career as a championship boxer, embarking on a journey of self-discovery and ambition.

Na jaren in de gevangenis te hebben gezeten, wordt Gus zonder enige uitleg vrijgelaten in een grote stad die hem totaal vreemd is. Gebroken door de jarenlange mishandeling van de gevangenbewaarders moet hij zijn eten bij elkaar scharrelen en slaapt hij in de buitenlucht. Tot een curator van een museum hem redt. Het museum blijkt onlangs een controversiële tentoonstelling te hebben geopend, een perfecte replica van de moerasgebieden ­tussen de Eufraat en de Tigris: de plek waar Gus voor zijn gevangenschap als dokter heeft gewerkt. Hij woonde daar tussen de gehate en gevreesde moerasmensen, die wel ­gekoloniseerd, maar nooit overwonnen zijn. Langzaam wordt duidelijk welke omstandigheden hebben geleid tot zijn gevangenschap en waarom zijn relatie met de gewelddadige moerasmensen, aan wie hij zijn leven heeft gewijd, zo gecompliceerd is.

An elderly Australian woman lets a mysterious and possibly sinister caretaker into her beach-side home and into her life.

'There are times, though, that no matter how much food I eat, I find the food does nothing for me, like I am hungry for my country and nothing is going to fix that' This is the story of Darling, uprooted from her family home by paramilitary police, and living in a Zimbabwean shanty called Paradise. Despite the turmoil, she revels in mischief and adventures with her friends, like stealing guavas from the rich neighbourhood, and singing Lady Gaga at the top of her voice. But when Darling has a chance to forge a different life in America, she realises that this new paradise brings its own set of challenges. In We Need New Names a spirited girl grows into a powerful observer of global identity. Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.

The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by a beautiful yet ruthless pirate. He will be spared, Mad Hannah Mabbot tells him, as long as he can conjure an exquisite meal every Sunday from the ship's meager supplies. While Wedgwood attempts to satisfy his captor with feats such as tea-smoked eel and pineapple-banana cider, he realizes that Mabbot herself is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. But there is a method to Mabbot's madness, and as the Flying Rose races across the ocean, Wedgwood learns to rely on the bizarre crew members he once feared: a formidable giant who loves to knit; a pair of stoic martial arts masters, sworn to defend their captain; and the ship's deaf cabin boy, who becomes the son he never had. An anarchic tale of love and appetite, Eli Brown's Cinnamon and Gunpowder is a wildly original feat of the imagination, deep and startling as the sea itself.

Ruprecht Van Doren is an overweight genius whose hobbies include very difficult maths and the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Daniel ?Skippy? Juster is his roommate. In the grand old Dublin institution that is Seabrook College for Boys, nobody pays either of them much attention. But when Skippy falls for Lori, the Frisbee-playing Siren from the girls? school next door, suddenly all kinds of people take an interest ? including Carl, part-time drug-dealer and official school psychopath. While his teachers battle over modernisation, and Ruprecht attempts to open a portal into a parallel universe, Skippy, in the name of love, is heading for a showdown ? in the form of a fatal doughnut-eating race that only one person will survive. This unlikely tragedy will explode Seabrook?s century-old complacency and bring all kinds of secrets into the light, until teachers and pupils alike discover that the fragile lines dividing past from present, love from betrayal ? and even life from death ? have become almost impossible to read . . .

As the end of summer approaches and a long, hot Labor Day weekend looms, the life of lonely thirteen-year-old Henry Wheeler is irrevocably changed when he and his emotionally fragile mother show kindness to a stranger with a terrible secret. Now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, Labor Day is a poignant story of love, sex, adolescence, and devastating treachery.

Twee vrienden bereizen de wereld om hun rijkdom onder de armen te verdelen, iets dat moeilijker blijkt te zijn dan het lijkt.

Fotomodel en schrijfster Alison Bliss loopt de zee in. Na haar dood wordt zij een nog groter icoon dan toen ze nog leefde. Zes jaar later ontmoet haar man Harry de negentienjarige Helen, met wie hij een intense relatie begint. Harry wordt aangetrokken door haar ongekende gelijkenis met Arabella, zijn grootvaders tweede vrouw, wier levensverhaal de inspiratiebron was voor Alisons laatste boek. Wanneer Harry met Helen teruggaat naar de plek waar Alison is gestorven, komt een legendarisch verhaal aan het licht, dat wellicht de verklaring voor Alisons zelfmoord in zich draagt.