Word: flemish
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...what if he were right? Flemish author Paul Verhaeghen explores that possibility - and galaxies of others - in Omega Minor, his sprawling, provocative, nuclear nightmare of a novel. After appearing in the Netherlands and his native Belgium in 2004, and Germany in 2006, the book spent months on best-seller lists and won a periodic table of European literary awards. Verhaeghen gained further notoriety by declining his prize money to protest the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq...
...criticism of the U.S., it's revealing that the Flemish world's hottest novelist tends to refer to Americans as "we." While Verhaeghen remains a Belgian citizen, the pull of America is strong. "I've reached two points of no return. I've been here 10 years, and I'm married to an American," says Verhaeghen, whose wife is also a psychologist. "I don't equate the country with what is happening now. I believe America's heart is in the right place...
...translator's nightmare. "Later, when the book was being translated into English, I saw a sample," he says. "It was excellent, but I didn't recognize my voice. Until then I hadn't realized I had a voice! So I did 30 pages myself and sent it to the [Flemish government] agency that subsidizes translations. Their outside reviewer thought my English was better than my Dutch...
...south of Brussels, it has a multiturreted town hall resembling a fairy-tale château, and a rich history involving Roman armies, Augustinian monks and medieval dukes. Since late last month, it also has a new law that makes proficiency in Dutch, the official language of Belgium's Flemish region, a precondition for buying public land. That puts a hard new edge on the increasing alienation between the country's linguistic communities, but Mayor Tim Vandenput is unrepentant. "I have nothing against other nationalities," he says. "But this is a Flemish region and we want it to remain Flemish...
Safeguarding Flemish interests is not just a local issue. It is at the heart of a national political standoff that a few days ago reached a remarkable milestone: six months after Belgium's general election on June 10, the nation still has no government. Yves Leterme, whose Flemish Christian Democrat party was the biggest winner in that election, promised more self-rule for Flanders in areas such as taxation, social security, economic policy and immigration. But French-speaking parties whose support he'd need for a majority balked at his demands. So earlier this month, Leterme abandoned his stop...