P. F. Thomese (1958) won the AKO literature prize for his debut Zuidland (Southland) in 1991. He has written novels (including The Sixth Act), novellas and short stories.

'A literary monument to mourning. Unsentimental and unvarnished' NRC Handelsblad 'What a heartbreakingly high price had to be paid for this brilliant book' Vrij Nederland 'Unsentimental yet deeply unsettling ... At its most intense, Thomese's distracted prose captures the descent into silent, numbing madness which can issue from sudden bereavement' Financial Times 'Stunningly beautiful ... This is a gorgeous book that will splinter open hearts touched by loss, leaving readers aching at the sorrow of death and the screaming, abyss-like emptiness it leaves in its wake' Los Angeles Times