Nothing

A playful story about a dog and a cat philosophising about something and nothing.

- Surprising text by author and theatre maker Gaea Schoeters
- With dynamic illustrations by award-winning illustrator Gerda Dendooven

Rights sold: German

Tell me something? the dog asks.
Nothing’s coming, the cat says.
Nothing at all.
A silence falls. It falls as only silences can fall. Without a sound.
But then the first thoughts appear. Together they go in search of nothing.

About the novels by Gaea Schoeters:
‘Schoeters again shows her superior storytelling talent. ****’
(Joke Spaey in Feeling)
‘A theatrical novel of ideas about art from a well-read author.’
(Psychologies)

About the work of Gerda Dendooven:
‘The art by Gernda Dendooven succeeds in bringing accross and evoking powerful emotions, without the constraints of any current aesthetics. She uses alienating proportions, a combination of cutting work, fine pencil lines and wide brushstrokes and careful compositions, to achieve that.’ (Mappalibri) ‘Gerda Dendooven has an expressive, direct style of drawing. Her figures are robust, and her images alwasy challenge the reader a bit. She also ingeniously plays with colour in her illustrations.’ (De Standaard)

Reviews:
'Gaea Schoeters wrote a philosophical story for young and old. Together with Gerda Dendooven's images, it became a striking and original picture book that gradually settles into your body and soul. It doesn't offer you a bite-size story like thirteen in a dozen, but if you open yourself up to it, a world opens up to you that tickles your imagination and stimulates your thinking. (...)
Dendooven places both figures in a colorful setting that strongly appeals to the work of American painter Mark Rothko with his abstract, penetrating color fields. With an apparently nonchalant drawing and painting style with blurred spots and playful lines, she creates surprising compositions. She expressively depicts both animals with human traits and movements. (...)
The text is pared down. Each sentence is thoughtfully but smoothly conceived without one word too many. Whereby there is so much more to feel and suspect between sentences. Likewise, many questions are raised in the reader/audience that cannot be ignored.' (Pluizuit, May 2021)

'The nice thing about the story is that it can evoke something different every time. In fact, you can read the book very quickly and superficially. But you can also read it slowly and dwell on each page. (...) Nothing is philosophy in understandable language and therefore suitable for any age. For many adults, philosophy in difficult language remains too abstract. Even for an image-thinker like me. That's why a picture book is all the nicer. The images support and reinforce the text. For example, when it talks about “more” and “include,” the cat is as big as the page. Otherwise, the images are fun with lots of different colors. Moreover, on each page the dog and cat are in different positions. Each time their faces show a different expression.' (StoerLeesVoer, April 2021)