Joe Speedboat is everything Fransje and his rival Christof would like to be. At the beginning of the book, Joe is a fourteen-year-old bomb expert, aeroplane builder and kinetic philosopher. His arrival in the small village wakes Fransje from his lethargy, and causes his life to take a new turn. Joe Speedboat is a classic Bildungsroman about revenge and retaliation, and the fate of newcomers to a small community. Fransje observes and describes in his notes how the arrival of Joe and other outsiders upsets the natural order. The village is baffled by Joe’s excessive talent, and at the same time does all it can to obstruct the march of time. Lightly and playfully and with great stylistic skill, Wieringa shows us the course of a history in which no one can escape their destiny. A resoundingly wonderful novel.

‘From the very first page on, this fourth novel by Tommy Wieringa is a book to fall in love with. With Joe Speedboat, Tommy Wieringa’s authorship has grown to full stature.’ – Het Parool

‘Nowhere his sentences lose their tension. It keeps going, it keeps swinging. (…) A great book’ – Trouw

‘In a beautiful style, Tommy Wieringa draws the observations of a chronically disabled boy – De Volkskrant

‘Tommy Wieringa is a novelist to be reckoned with. Wieringa’s work is solid as a rock.’ – Het financieele dagblad

‘Fine use of language, beautiful metaphors and an ode to the imagination.’ - De Telegraaf

‘In this novel Tommy Wieringa maintains a beautifully light, slightly surprised tone, which makes the story come to full bloom. How did Tommy Wieringa do this? So much pleasure in writing? What made him write this fantastic, compelling, original book?’ – De Groene Amsterdammer

‘The novel has content and is a delight to read’ – Metro

‘With Joe Speedboat Wieringa delivers a great story, written at rate and with sense for detail.’ – Vrij Nederland

‘The weird novel with the weird title Joe Speedboat by Tommy Wieringa is actually an excellent book. (…) Everything tallies in the book. It’s in tune, tragic, comic, light, touching, and so on. (…) I haven’t read a memorable book like this in years’ – Leeuwarder Courant

‘The style, themes, narrator’s perspective, characters, structures – it’s all a delight to read. (…) Joe Speedboat deserves to lie at every counter at bookstores everywhere.’ – Haarlem’s Dagblad

‘Wieringa is a passionate storyteller. (…) Joe Speedboat is a book that makes you happy.’ – Standaard der Letteren

‘This book radiates an unusual charm. It’s very clear in it’s realism and at the same time magical in it’s imagination. It reads fluently in it’s simplicity, though it’s very intelligently conceived, with striking details to play on in your memory. The world evoked in it is very recognizable, but the picture gets something mythical too. Most of it owed to that great original, endearing language. With this book Tommy Wieringa doubtlessly makes his firm reputation.’ – De Morgen

‘It has been a long time since we discovered an author who catches the reader with such an own language and such an own voice. With an incredible joy of speech and fantasy, with wisdom but still a young and fresh voice, Tommy Wieringa tells about growing up, on friendship and love and on bitter and sweet betrayal to both.’ – Nordkurier

‘Wieringa is for German readers a rewarding discovery’ – Südwest Presse

‘And indeed, Joe Speedboat holds, what the beginning of the story promises: a strong piece of literature, a brilliant story, beautifully written, entertaining to read, striking and captivating not only because of the characters the author calls up and involves in various stories, but even more because of the surprising turns, which take place in the course of the story.’ – Neue Zürcher Zeitung