A Quattro Mani
Two people, four hands – photographer Marc Brester and journalist Vivian de Gier can read and write together, literally. Together, we are the literary journalist duo A Quattro Mani. As partners in crime, we travel around the world for various media outlets for reviews, literary reports and in-depth, personal interviews with the authors that matter, either well-known or upcoming talent. This allows readers to encounter beautiful, special and unique voices in world literature who deserve to be heard.
A Quattro Mani held the first Dutch interviews with, among others, Karl Ove Knausgård, David Vann, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Jonas Gardell, David Foenkinos and Jesús Carrasco. We also spoke to Javier Marías, Amy Bloom, Sofi Oksanen and Aminatta Forna. Of course, we have also met countless Dutch and Belgian authors, including Annejet van der Zijl, Stefan Hertmans, Hanna Bervoets, Anton Dautzenberg, Robbert Welagen, Thomas Verbogt, Auke Hulst and Carolina Trujillo.
With Arthur Japin, we strolled through Paris and over his estate in the Dordogne; we visited Per Olov Enquist in Stockholm and Davide Longo in Turin. We hiked through the mountains of the Italian Valle d’Aosta with Paolo Cognetti and through the taigas of Finland with Thijs Feuth. Tatiana de Rosnay took us to her personal Paris and Alberto Garlini gave us a tour in Udine. We joined Alessandro d’Avenia for a report in Milan and with Davide Enia in Palermo. And we traveled to Lisbon to meet António Lobo Antunes and Gonçalo M. Tavares. We were allowed to interview Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller at her home in Berlin.
Work of A Quattro Mani has appeared in, at or on such places as:
Algemeen Dagblad/AD Magazine, poetry magazine Awater, De Bezige Bij, Blendle, BOEK Magazine, Boek-Delen, De Boekensalon, Ciao Tutti, CPNB, Cultureel Persbureau, eLinea, Feltrinelli, Het Financieele Dagblad, HP/De Tijd, Humo, Italië Magazine, Joie de Vivre, Knack/Knack Focus, Leven in Frankrijk, Lezentv, Livre Magazine, Margriet, Mediterranée, NCRV Gids, Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Het Parool, Passionate Platform, Pepper Books, Psychologie Magazine, Reporters Online, Schrijven Magazine, De Standaard, Trouw, VPRO Gids, Yoga Magazine, ZIN.