Franca Treur

Youth and education

Treur grew up in a strict Reformed Christian farming family in her Zeelandic birthplace of Meliskerke. After secondary school at the Calvijn College, she went on to study psychology at Leiden University. Later she switched to Dutch language and literary science. In Leiden, she became a member of the Reformed student association Panoplia. According to a newspaper interview, during her studies she discovered the alleged similarities between stories from Ancient Near Eastern cultures and those related in the Bible, which convinced her that such stories were merely invented to console human beings. Moreover, she had never actually felt the existence of God. She therefore eventually abandoned her faith, informing the board of Panoplia about it on 11 September 2001.

Literary career

In 2006, Treur won an essay competition, themed 'Macht en onmacht' ('Power and powerlessness') commissioned by Contrast Magazine and nrc.next, with her piece Maak iets van je leven! Maar wat? ("Make something out of your life! But what?").

In October 2009, her first book Dorsvloer vol confetti ("Threshing Floor Laden With Confetti") was published. It is a psychological novel about a girl that grows up in Zeeland in a deeply religious farming family in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although her youth served as a crucial role of inspiration, the novel is not an autobiography. The book sold over 150,000 copies. Because of the topic and her background, her style is often compared to writers such as Jan Siebelink and Maarten 't Hart, who, like her, have broken away from the strict Reformed milieu in which they were raised.

In 2010, Franca Treur won the Selexyz Debut Prize. Dorsvloer vol confetti was nominated several times, including for the AKO Literatuurprijs (longlist) and the NS Publieksprijs. At the end of 2010, Column Film announced that it had bought the film rights for Dorsvloer vol confetti. It was shown in cinemas in 2014.

Novels

Essay bundle

Film adaption