This masterful, multi-award-winning novel — acclaimed as the best Dutch novel published this century — is told from the perspective of eleven characters who draw the reader into a narrative that spans three centuries. Its central figure is the mysterious Eliza May Drayden, modelled after Emily Brontë.

In early 19th-century Yorkshire, Eliza and her sisters, Millicent and Helen, lead a reclusive existence marred by poverty and disease. They find fulfilment in their love of reading and writing books. When, after dozens of rejections, the novels by Millicent and Eliza are finally published (using male pseudonyms), Millicent’s novel becomes a huge success, whereas Eliza’s novel is labelled ‘sick’ and ‘immoral’. Over time, however, it is embraced by ever more readers as a masterpiece.

In eleven extraordinary chapters, each of which could just as well be a standalone novella, Eliza May’s story is told by people who knew her, by her biographers centuries later, through the pages of a mysterious notebook, and by characters whose lives become serendipitously intertwined with Eliza’s. The novel, in effect, tells the story not of Eliza May’s life, but of her tumultuous life after death.

In The Song of Stork and Dromedary, Anjet Daanje has crafted a unique blend of romanticism and postmodernism — a gripping literary mystery, an intricate tapestry of tales of love, death, and obsession, and an unforgettable exploration of the nature of time and storytelling.