In 2020, the fourth edition of Geertekes debut Een zee van glas (in Dutch) was published by Ten Have Publishers
ORDER BOOK (in Dutch language)
In the summer of 2016, Geerteke lost her partner to drowning. In her novel A Sea of Glass (Van Lierop, 2018), she describes poetically and with great clarity the immense grief she feels, and how she loses connection with the shared world, and more importantly, how she finds comfort, support and hope in life again through walking in nature, encounters with strangers, and art. She discovers that art installations are able to pull her out of loneliness and offer her a growing zest for life. Art always takes her further than where she was.
A Sea of Glass gives a penetrating insight into what happens after loss, and what art can do in restoring and strengthening the connection to self, world and others. Art helped Geerteke to be resilient and intertwine loss with life in a positive way. An ode to love, which is stronger than death. A story with universal eloquence – but above all a book that makes you look at life differently.
About A Sea of Glas:
‘A Sea of Glass beautifully maps how a life is lived after a death. Grief is prose, it is mundane, monotonous, dull, but its exploration here is poetry – brief thoughts and feelings, like shards of glass, catching a beam of light in a dark space. The death of a loved one reshapes you, reforms you, exposes you, as a layer of skin has been ripped away. Death is a foreign language, and you have to learn how to speak it. In “A Sea of Glass”, Geerteke van Lierop schools herself through new words and new art to navigate how to live in this new landscape, formed by pain – but a pain celebrated as it perfectly balances the love that was felt.’ — Greg Wise, actor (Sense and Sensibility, A Private War, The Crown)
‘Devoid of any sentimentality Van Lierop gives a razor-sharp account of her piercing loss and despair, but also of courage and a growing zest for life during the first year following her great love’s fatal accident.’ — ZIN Magazine
‘A sophisticated book that gives a penetrating picture of what happens when you face death.’ — Lex Bohlmeijer, De Correspondent
‘A moving book. It opens your gaze to people in grief.’ — Manu Keirse, professor emeritus loss KU Leuven
‘In A Sea of Glass, Van Lierop discovers that visual art can offer support and hope […] the book ends full of hope.’ — Dutch newspaper Trouw
artingrief.org 