(b.1971 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch writer. At the age of twenty-three, his first novel, Blue Mondays, became a bestseller in Europe and won the Anton Wachter Prize. It has been translated into thirteen languages. His other novels include Silent Extras (1997), Saint Anthony (1998), and Phantom Pain (2000).
Commemorating war is controversial. A global or even national consensus on which aspects of the past should be remembered and how is difficult to achieve. Taking World War II as the jagged case it is, Arnon Grunberg scrutinizes how to re-engage with disagreement over past injustices, enabling better, future political decisions.
Acknowledging the past is an ongoing necessity to know who we are, says Arnon Grunberg, whose Dutch WWII Remembrance Day lecture pointedly commemorates those who lost their lives shouting ‘No!’ and refusing to conform.