Riverbank

Awarded the Woutertje Pieterse Prize 2025

Jip has a school assignment for the May holidays: draw a self-portrait. That should be simple for someone who can draw so well. Yet Jip's thoughts keep wandering. To the new boy in class, to May bugs and fireflies, to the party next Friday, and especially to the boy who changed Jip's world once and for all: Oever.

‘What a moving and comforting debut! Ludwig Volbeda is unsurpassed in the tenderly small.’ – Arthur Japin

‘Ludwig Volbeda writes as he draws: intimate and awe-inspiring at the same time.’ – Ted van Lieshout

‘I don’t know of any other book that so tenderly, convincingly, and utterly authentically portrays the journey of a young, queer character. Beautiful!’ – Benny Lindelauf