What happens when you suddenly have to take care of your deathly ill father when you don't have a good relationship with him at all? That's what Wilgenkind, the latest novel by Josha Zwaan is about. She is coming to Groesbeek Library on Tuesday, May 12, for a reading about her book.

In the novel Wilgenkind, Swan explores what happens when someone starts caring for her deathly ill parent when that person clearly did not deserve it. At first not out of love, but out of duty, and after a while also out of compassion. That this sacrifice also yields something, that healing can take place, she shows in the development Hannah goes through. She wants to show that even in dysfunctional families there is love from the parents for their children, but that their inability prevents them from guiding their children well.

Willow Child is a moving novel about the misunderstandings between parents and children, about family secrets and their concealment, about delayed grief, and about the roles that are reversed when children suddenly have to care for their parents.

This lecture is organized in cooperation with Mantelzorg Berg en Dal and book sales this evening are in the hands of Bruna Groesbeek.
Doors open: 7 p.m.

About the author
Josha Zwaan (born 1963) is an author and writing teacher. She made her debut in 2010 with the novel Parnassia, which received rave reviews. The equally wonderful Sea Spark followed in 2013, and 2015 saw the publication of Dwaallicht, a hopeful novel about living with mental illness. About the impact of a kidney disease on her son and her family, Josha Zwaan wrote her first nonfiction book, Zijspoor.