{"id":1924,"date":"2025-05-09T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T07:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ambassade-hotel-nl.ont.stuurlui.dev\/?post_type=blog&p=1924"},"modified":"2025-05-21T15:07:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T13:07:42","slug":"esther-verhoef","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/ambassade-hotel-nl.ont.stuurlui.dev\/de\/blog\/esther-verhoef\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther Verhoef"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Esther Verhoef<\/h1>\n

\nEsther Verhoef (b.1968) is one of the most successful and versatile writers in the Netherlands. She has sold some 2.4 million copies of her psychological thrillers and novels. Verhoef\u2019s work has been published in numerous countries and has been nominated for and won prizes on numerous occasions, including the NS Public Prize, the Hebban Award and the Golden Noose.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Shutters Are Closed<\/h3>\n

\n\u2018All of us have increasingly turned inwards,\u2019 my writing friend says. She gestures as if she\u2019s closing shutters in front of her face. \u2018Everyone on their own little island. Furtive, frightened of the drifting bacteria on the breath of others.\u2019<\/p>\n

I sit opposite her with a big glass of Chardonnay. My second. The stricter the rules get, the higher my drinks tab. My friend is in a high-risk group, but now she\u2019s had her second jab, and I\u2019m just recovering from two weeks of last-minute Corona. So, it\u2019s all allowed again now. We even hugged \u2014 faces turned away, because you never know.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve transformed into a hermit that dreads human contact,\u2019 she continues. \u2018Someone who has to re-learn how to welcome guests. Didn\u2019t that go quickly?\u2019<\/p>\n

I nod and take a sip. And another. I\u2019ve always escaped into my writing, every day since I was eight; disappeared behind words and sentences, absorbed in a world that you create yourself, and that you can understand and control.<\/p>\n

\u2018There are some people who I haven\u2019t seen for a year and a half,\u2019 I say. \u2018You know, friends who you go out to a film with for the discussion afterwards, or you like to go shopping with, or go out to lunch with at some hip place.\u2019<\/p>\n

And at a certain moment, you don\u2019t dare to invite anyone anymore, I think, because one of them will clasp you to their chest as you come in, snorting: \u2018You don\u2019t believe in all that nonsense, do you?!\u2019 And another will promptly give you the cold shoulder just because you want to have two guests, while Jaap and Mark from the government advise only one.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t even message my firm, casual friends. What are you supposed to ask? Is everyone healthy, are you all managing there? I miss them, and then again I don\u2019t. I\u2019m no longer used to people, I think. My house\u2019s shutters are closed, and so are my heart\u2019s a little.<\/p>\n

This must be an ideal time for writers, I keep reading everywhere. Because they were already sitting at home the whole time, typing. Nothing\u2019s changed for them. But for me, everything\u2019s changed. I write in seclusion. Four or five days without social contact is normal. So now and then I need to get out to make sure I don\u2019t end up babbling under a stone. Hopsy, off to a caf\u00e9, a restaurant, the shops, a festival, places where you can tap off a few drops of social structure as an antidote. And hear a story or two, input for your work.<\/p>\n

But everything is fully booked up, or regulated to death, and people have gone stark-raving mad, screaming at the tops of their voices at each other on either side of a ravine, where you could once have found the safe, middle ground.<\/p>\n

Rapprochement \u2014 I hope that we can learn that again. Houses and hearts open, understanding, nuance and trust. A new, firm foundation in that middle ground, that\u2019s what I wish for the reader, the writer, each and every person.<\/p>\n

And until then, there\u2019s always Chardonnay.<\/p>\n

View the column on\u00a0the website of \u2018Het Parool\u2019.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What is a writers\u2019 hotel without writers? A pen without ink? For a period of six months in 2021, one author a week was invited to stay at the Ambassade Hotel and describe their writing lives at that time. Throughout the period May to November 2021, the newspaper Het Parool published the Writers\u2019 Hotel columns in its weekly Arts Section.<\/p>\n

Would you like to stay at the writers\u2019 hotel as well? Enjoy a unique experience in the Ambassade Hotel\u00a0with these special offer packages\u00a0or come and admire the library after a visiting our sunny\u00a0terrace on the Herengracht!<\/p>\n

Read more about\u00a0this column project\u00a0in collaboration with \u2018Het Parool\u2019.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"blog_category":[6],"class_list":["post-1924","blog","type-blog","status-publish","hentry","blog_category-writers-hotel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambassade-hotel-nl.ont.stuurlui.dev\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/1924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambassade-hotel-nl.ont.stuurlui.dev\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambassade-hotel-nl.ont.stuurlui.dev\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambassade-hotel-nl.ont.stuurlui.dev\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"blog_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambassade-hotel-nl.ont.stuurlui.dev\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_category?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}