PRESS RELEASE, December 2021

New Young Adult trilogy: ‘Zephyre, the night the sun shone’

From and on Dutch soil

For thousands of years our world has recounted the words and images of predominantly male (spiritual) masters and gods. What if everything begins at the source, SOPHIA? She appears in many writings and there has ‘even’ been scientific research into her. The fifteen year old protagonist Zephyre is connected to her and lives an unusual life, in a small hospital surrounded by forest. The world as we know it has fallen apart because of the Basalt crisis. Commercial companies have taken the place of government. Fifty years from now, the key to the earth lies in her hands. The world is falling apart, with the impact that the only certainty we have, that one day we die, may no longer be possible. Zephyre was written by the Alkmaar writer and illustrator Valérie Docters Verswijveren.

The story

‘Zephyre, the night the sun shone’ is about the fifteen year old teenager Zephyre van der Zon. After a number of small crises, the definitive collapse of the system follows, known as the Basalt Crisis. The world that was built up over a century and a half collapses. Physical and virtual money: dollars, euros, yuan and so on, bits of paper, metal, zeros and ones, are no longer worth anything. The disruption caused by the Basalt crisis has consequences on several layers: there are, for example, secret agreements between humans and gods that are no longer honoured.

Before the world tears apart, and people can no longer die after their death, Zephyre has the task of preventing this. Together with friends she sets off on a journey that soon turns out to be very dangerous. She comes out of her relatively safe world and has to search for invisible tokens that hold the world(s) together...

The beginning

The first idea for this book began in 2009 when the writer was waiting for her father to wake up. Having been seriously ill herself, the thought came to her: what can I no longer postpone? This was her old wish to write a book, fiction mixed with facts. Such as the mortgage crisis, the increasingly diffuse world of power, money and houses that were hard to sell back then, which imposed itself on everyone. The lack of gender neutrality and appreciation, in the example of the writer J.K. Rowling, who could not use her own first name because otherwise boys would not read her books. The story now had to be set in the Netherlands. As the child of francophiles with a love for the Dutch language, the writer wanted to delve deeper into her own culture. And that with a look ahead to fifty years from now.

Part mystery, part reality

By now reality is partly starting to catch up with the fiction. The book has characteristics of, but is nevertheless not, a story about a completely dystopian world. At its core it is about young people who are working out how they relate to the world, their development, reason and feeling, humour and identity. The writer wanted to create a world in the near future, in which technological growth in its current form has burst apart. She deliberately chose the Young Adult genre because this, besides being something she enjoys reading herself, offers the possibility of using several (non) fiction elements such as mythology, science and history. Contrary to what the name suggests, several generations read Young Adult.

Knowledge, language and wisdom

The writer noticed that, just like many Dutch people, we often appreciate another country more than our own. That is why this first part takes place in the future ‘Low Countries’ near present day Nijmegen and (spoiler alert) Friesland. The writer did research into, among other things, the original second university of the Netherlands: the University of Franeker, and into, among others, Anna Maria van Schurman (1607): humanist, linguist, theologian, poet, artist, the first female student in the Netherlands to be admitted to university and who mastered eleven languages. She corresponded with leading scholars and clergy.

For the book a partly new vocabulary was put together, since language develops. In addition the writer wanted to make the everyday course of events in the book realistic. Not that young people only worry about their appearance.
Another aspect is wisdom in relation to knowledge. In many writings Sophia stands for pure wisdom. Hagia Sophia is one example of this, but so is Dr. Annine van der Meer; she earned her doctorate on the teaching and knowledge of Sophia. Nevertheless the writer stresses that Zephyre is based on the writer's imagination.

About the writer

At the age of sixteen, Valérie Docters Verswijveren faced the choice of studying Dutch or going to art school. She received a ten for her final exam assignment in Dutch. The teacher encouraged her to keep writing, but because she also enjoyed drawing, she chose the St. Joost Academy of Fine Arts after all. All the illustrations and the concept of the cover are by her hand. After this education she worked as a communications manager and advisor in various sectors, including the cultural sector in Rotterdam. She likes to spend time in Friesland. For the past fifteen years she has run the coaching agency The Art of People for leadership, personal and career questions. She lives with her family in Alkmaar.

Finally

‘Zephyre, the night the sun shone’ is the first part of a trilogy, published in November 2021. The writer is currently working on the second part.

Note for the editors

Hardcover, 436 pages with a spread and illustrations inside, plus e-book.

Publisher: ZEPHYRE BOOKS | NUR 285 ISBN 978-90-9035150-6.

Available at bookshops affiliated with CB and Bol.com at € 22.50. Limited edition with an original lithograph for sale from the writer at € 27.50 plus € 3.50 postage (parcel rate is € 6.74). Prices include VAT.

A listening fragment accompanied by music can be heard via the media below and via the ‘Creation’ page on this website.

In the pipeline: audiobook (in development) and English language version (in development).

For more information, images or an interview, you can reach Valérie Docters Verswijveren at: 06 45 308 813 | info@theartofpeople.nl

Social media:

Insta: theartofpeople1

Facebook: Valérie Docters Verswijveren

This website: zephyre.nl, Creation, or www.theartofpeople.nl/creation