Astrid Haerens

Astrid Haerens (b. 1989) lives and works in Brussels. She is the author of the novel Stadspanters and the poetry collection Oerhert, which won the Poëziedebuutprijs in 2023. She toured with the poetry album Anger’s Family Tree, a collaboration with Maris and Lootens. Her latest novel, Erosie, explores the complex bond between two women.

Erosie is a novel about a friendship falling apart, an exhausted female body, beachcombing, stones, an island, eros(ion). Helle, an internationally acclaimed artist, suddenly loses her lifelong friend Alma. Their contact comes to an abrupt end, leaving behind a gaping void: an all-consuming grief over a friendship for which there seem to be no words.

Adrift, Helle retreats to a German Wadden island, where the silence and rawness of the landscape allow her to slowly peel back the layers of grief and care.