The Discomfort of Evening is Lucas Rijneveld’s debut novel, and its English edition, translated by Michele Hutchison, won the 2020 International Booker Prize. It follows ten-year-old Jas after her older brother Matthies dies in an accident. Grief reaches the family through the child’s intense attention to her senses and through fantasies that grow steadily more disturbing. It is a demanding book, and readers who know that going in tend to get the most from it.
What the novel is about
The story is told through Jas, who is ten. Her brother Matthies dies in an accident, and the loss breaks the household apart. Jas does not respond with a clear account of what happened. She notices textures, smells and small physical details: ointment on skin, the warts of migrating toads, and words she believes are missing from the Bible. Her curiosity slowly turns into fantasies that the official Booker synopsis describes as disturbing.
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The setting is a Dutch dairy farm and a strict religious upbringing. Official prize materials point to four things that carry the book: grief, the disintegration of the family, the child’s point of view, and the sensory quality of Rijneveld’s prose. Those four elements explain most of what readers find striking about it.
Who wrote and who translated it
Lucas Rijneveld wrote the novel in Dutch under the title De avond is ongemak. Atlas Contact published it in 2018. The Booker author profile notes that the book won the ANV Debut Prize and became a national bestseller in the Netherlands.
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The English edition is The Discomfort of Evening, translated by Michele Hutchison. It was published in the UK by Faber & Faber on 5 March 2020. Translation is part of the prize itself, so the translator’s name belongs in any description of the award-winning book, alongside the author’s.
The Dutch Foundation for Literature (Nederlands Letterenfonds) also maintains an entry for the book, available at The Discomfort of Evening on the Dutch Foundation for Literature site.
The 2020 International Booker Prize
The International Booker Prize is not the same as the Booker Prize for Fiction. It honours fiction translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland, and it is awarded for the translated work. The Foundation’s official 2020 archive lists The Discomfort of Evening as the winner. The judges were Ted Hodgkinson (chair), Lucie Campos, Jennifer Croft, Valeria Luiselli and Jeet Thayil.
Two published figures from the Booker Prize Foundation’s 2021 press release describe the book’s reach at that time. The UK edition had sold over 50,000 copies, and the novel was being translated into 40 languages. Both figures are as reported in 2021. They are not current totals, and the book’s sales and translation count may have changed since then.
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Is it a difficult book to read?
Yes, and the prize materials say so directly. The judges describe difficult subject matter and an unsettling reading experience, while also praising the inquisitive child’s perspective and the way the novel makes everyday things feel strange and important. In their 2020 remarks, the judges put it this way:
‘There’s something both in the intensity of that creative vision and that perspective of a child, but also the translation, that allows you into that world so immediately and so completely. It’s not a book that you can sit back from.’
The content includes a sudden death, a grieving family, a difficult religious upbringing, and disturbing fantasies. This list reflects the main material named in the synopsis and the judges’ remarks. It is not a complete content-warning inventory, so readers who are sensitive to particular subjects should check the publisher’s description before starting.
How critics have described its tone
Critics on the Booker page describe the book in mixed but strongly felt terms. Chloe Ashby calls it difficult to read yet tender and compelling. Lily Meyer points to its attention to small details and to grief. These are individual critical judgments, not a consensus verdict.
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Rijneveld has spoken about how the book relates to his own experience. In the official Booker author interview on the book page, he says:
‘I don’t see writing as healing, though it sometimes helps me to open up more.’
He continues: “I dig into everything I’ve been through and what I’m going through, like a vole. I can be genuinely happy with a phrase I have found, even when the phrase may be full of sadness. For me, it’s about turning something sad or beautiful into art.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Dutch original and English edition compared
| Feature | Dutch original | English edition |
|---|---|---|
| Title | De avond is ongemak | The Discomfort of Evening |
| Language | Dutch | English, translated by Michele Hutchison |
| Publisher | Atlas Contact | Faber & Faber (UK) |
| Publication date | 2018 | 5 March 2020 (UK) |
| Prize connection | ANV Debut Prize | 2020 International Booker Prize |
The two editions are the same novel in different languages. The Dutch text is the original, and the English text is the translation that won the International Booker. Readers who read Dutch can compare them directly. Readers who do not can judge the English prose as its own work. The sources do not support a claim that either edition is superior to the other.
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Who this book suits
- Readers who are willing to stay with grief, sensory detail and a child’s unsettled thinking, rather than expecting a clear narrative resolution.
- Readers interested in translated fiction that won the International Booker, and in how a translator’s choices shape a child’s voice.
- Readers who want to know the Dutch edition’s context and are comfortable reading in Dutch.
Readers looking for a lighter or more distant treatment of bereavement will likely find it too intense. Start with the publisher’s description and the content guidance above, and decide from there.
Where to find the book
The physical book is the only direct product that matches this title. Macmillan Academic’s catalog entry for The Discomfort of Evening is available at Macmillan Academic, The Discomfort of Evening. Before buying from any retailer, confirm that the listing names Michele Hutchison as translator and matches the edition and format you want.
The official Booker book page is at The Discomfort of Evening on the Booker Prizes site, and the 2020 prize archive is at The International Booker Prize 2020.
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