A virtuoso re-creation of an extraordinary life. ( ) Japin is far too clever to sermonise, and he looks the fact of the indigenous African slave trade squarely in the face. In his narrator, Kwasi, he has created a memorable voice. ( ) Japin also superbly evokes ( ) a world as barbarous and magnificent as Babylon or Nineveh. - The Daily Telegraph

Japin has constructed a powerful story of colonial hypocrisy and cultural confusion ( ) This is a fascinating study of how people deal with difference. ( ) And the writer is at his most eloquent in his depiction of the irreconcilable nature of two conflicting cultures. - The Financial Times

A lesson in loss and choice. The novel is told in a bravura rendering of historical detail and the brisk, ironic voice of Kwasi. ( /) Japins greatest accomplishment is the narrator’s tone in which the voice of an embittered old man merges with that of a perceptive child. - The Independent

Arthur Japin has written a complex novel, beautifully crafted and spellbinding... - The Daily Mail

An elegant and ultimately moving fictional reworking of another troubling chapter of Europeans in Africa and Africans in Europe - Caryl Phillips.

Japin has fashioned an intelligent contribution to the ‘dark heart of Victoriana’ genre, telling a far from antiquarian tale of the exploitation of the developing world by the shady legalese of richer countries. - The Observer

Japin has written a superb and sophisticated novel. It carries its immense learning with remarkable lightness ( ) a gripping and moving story. - Amazon

monumentally believable ( ) defiantly resonant for our own time. -The Scotmans

FROM THE UNITED STATES:
‘Rich and risky... A deeply humane book about a spectacularly exotic subject with a spaciousness and stamina, and an unforced sense of history, that nowadays are almost as unusual as Kwasi Boachi himself.’ - NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

‘A gorgeous novel... as in Conrad, the ultimate destination reveals not so much a place on the map as a view of the human heart.’ - NEWSDAY

‘The richness of the scenes Japin paints, the brilliance of his hues!’ - NEW YORK MAGAZINE

‘Mesmerising... Like Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, Japin’s ventriloquism is virtually flawless’ TIME OUT, NEW YORK

‘A brilliant first novel, a compact epic of consequences of European colonization of Africa, written by a Dutch Renaissance man... a potent dramatization of culture shock, ethnic injustice, and exploitation... As artful and moving an analysis of the tragedy of colonialism as we have seen in many years’ - Kirkus Review

FROM FRANCE:
This first novel like a manifest for tolerance and cultural multiformity, refined and sensitive, the fruit of ten years of research, has known a perfectly justified success... - Le Nouvel Observateur

It is a first novel of a breathtaking richness, both in style as in story. Better than an essay the novel shows all possible problems of integration. - L’Evenement

Arthur Japin has made a colossal research to trace the lives of the two African princes ( ) This overpowering historical novel... - Le Magazine des livres

Finally to situate Japin in universal literature, we have to remark he is related to the great classics. Although being very authentic, very far from being an epigone, one has to really think of Chateaubriand, of Goethe, of Yourcenar, of Tournier... he is fully worthy to be seen as one of them. (From a reading report by Gallimard)

FROM SWITSERLAND:
An overwhelming novel by Arthur Japin. In the story of the lives of Kwame and Kwasi all the great ideas crystallize, marvelously one moment, dramatically the next. ( ) Everything is there, germinating under a brilliant tissue of descriptions and retort, in comical attitudes, in the shock of laughter and the sentiment of irreversible injustice. - Le Temps

FROM THE NETHERLANDS:
“Impressive” the publisher claims on the cover. For once a publisher is too modest, this book is not impressive, it is breathtaking. - ALGEMEEN HANDELSBLAD

A sad story, full of astonishing facts [...] his accomplished debut pales in comparison to the richness, vivacity and persuasiveness of this novel, which was composed by a true master. - NRC HANDELSBLAD

A truly excellent novel... breathtaking...gripping. - DE STEM

An intriguing story and a fascinating novel - HP/De Tijd

He has a bewitching style, that seems so concrete that everything stays believable... Clarity, that’s the basis of Japins magic. - STANDAARD DER LETTEREN

...his prose is extremely carefully tended, pithy, rhythmic, sonorous, rich in imagery and structurally perfect. - HET PAROOL

Extraordinarily ingenious - TROUW

Magnificent! A highly topical and memorable novel - DE VOLKSKRANT

A big, compelling and extremely fascinating novel. A singular achievement, that would be difficult to surpass. - MAARTEN ‘T HART

FROM GERMANY:
Arthur Japin shows himself to be a virtuoso storyteller. It is such incredibly colorful and magnificent material! ( )
The history is reconstructed with such detail that afterwards we are left with the feeling to have actually lived in the 19th century for a short time and to have been part of many different worlds. The main theme especially remains current: the vulnerable position of the outsider. It surely is a humanistic impulse that the author Japin gives us such insight into his sympathetic main characters. ( )
A current theme for every day and age and any culture. - DIE WELT

Page after page a strong reconstruction of living between cultures and continents. ( ) Japin painted these lives in straight forward (no nonsense) prose, at the same time drawing a gripping double portrait. - MÜNCHENER ZEITUNG

An excellently written historical novel filled with amazing facts. - KULTURSPIEGEL

With palpitations of the heart the reader follows this amazingly reconstructed drama. Clever, unsentimental and yet deeply moving Japin brings it forward out of the shadows of history. - AACHENER NACHRRICHTEN

One of the most thrilling and at the same time most exposing works of fine literature on European colonialism ever. - SONNTAG

FROM DENMARK:
It is as a highly exiting and exhilarating book Arthur Japin has composed, describing the spirit of colonization on many different levels. - MORGEN AVISEN

A work of major importance on the 19th century when the white man was the black man’s burden. - BERLINGSKE TIDENDE

A clever and intriguing story about romantic naiveté, cynical power, snobbism and racism, cruelty and generosity in which the characters are not just divided in good and evil. - POLITIKEN

FROM NORWAY:
In this novel the destiny of one single person is raised beyond the history of slavery. This is as much a tragic as a stately story about pride and human degradation. …
A gripping story about cultural collisions lived out by two humans. And heartbreaking, too.
… Arthur Japin’s novel, built upon oral and written sources, is a very clever and intimate rendering of how the two boys meet the world. … The writer has set out with a brilliant psychological feeling for and intimate knowledge about life in prison. - ADRESSEAVISEN

Is this then a book about conventional racism? To say yes to this question would be to simplify in an almost untolerable way. The two princes do not meet that much “classical race hate”, even if they also do that. It is more a question of reservation towards the unknown, narrowmindedness and suspicion. But that is not all. The gripping thing about the novel is the author’s sense for nuances, his willingness to understand also the ones who do not understand. This is perhaps a pain we all do shelter, because we, one way or the other, are unique and therefore lonely. - DAGBLADET

FROM SPAIN:
Poetic and deeply moving. [...] true to historical facts and yet with poignant observations on harrowing cultural differences. - EL PAíS

FROM AFRICA:
Arthur Japin’s descriptive energy is impressive. ( ) He turns plain historical names into real people with real emotions and real pain. ( ) an impressive feat. Japin drags out of the closet our archaic attitudes to race. ( ) Sad and uncompromisingly honest. - WEST AFRICA

Successful opera based on Japin's book

Music
"De zwarte met het witte hart"
--Sharply composed by Jonathan Dove
--Japin himself wrote the libretto

Rotterdam. "The first ten years of my life I was not black," Prince Kwasi sings at the end of De zwarte met het witte hart, summing up in one sentence the problem of his entire life, the subject of this opera. Based on a true story, known from the novel of the same title by Arthur Japin, the tale is painful. Two small African boys, Kwasi and Kwame, are shipped off to Holland in 1837 by a Dutch officer. There, they receive a Western upbringing and even move in the highest circles. Kwame can't forget his birthplace, but he is too Westernized to be able to return. He does not end up well. But even Kwasi, though he is well integrated, meets impassable obstacles, which of course have everything to do with the color of his skin.

Japin himself, at the request of Opera O.T., turned his novel into a libretto, showing that he also has a good ear for music. He not only managed to bring all the ingredients from the novel into a series of scenes, but his texts also open up room for logical musical forms and reminiscences. And the English composer Jonathan Dove, commissioned by the directors Gerrit Timmers and Mirjam Koen to provide the music for the story, has cleverly used all these possibilities.

Though the opera is sung in English, it includes typically Dutch elements. St. Nicholas and Black Peters put in an appearance, and the children in a school in Delft sing hymns with a humming sound that recalls a harmonium. But Dove takes the opportunity to delve into African and Javanese music as well. His idiom also shows the influences of John Adams, Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, and Leonard Bernstein, but stands out because of its open sound and a sobriety that -- despite the terrible story -- rarely sounds grim, thanks to a refined instrumentation that gives it great dramatic power. The broad strokes of the opera work make way for recitative singing and short ariosos, but never at the price of depth. Especially not in the second half of the performance.

Led by the small but eminent ensemble Domestica Rotterdam, the many singers in Kwasi & Kwame deliver sparkling performances -- especially Mitchell Zangazha and Nathan Musoki who sing the young Kwasi and Kwame, on a level that for Dutch junior singers is probably unattainable. Hans Voschezang and Brian Green, who who after half an act take over from the boys, make even more of an impression.

Opera O.T., which has a name to lose when it comes to high-value opera productions, has aimed very high with this project, but once again delivered. The nice, very historical and authentic-seeming costumes create an effective contrast with the particularly sober decors. Koen and Timmers round it out with a wonderfully beautiful final image that can leave no one unmoved.

© Frits van der Waa - De Volkskrant