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'Joyful, tender, and strangely relatable . . . With sharp, playful prose, Veldman tells a story in equal parts searing intelligence and madcap sweetness. Simply brilliant.' Jenny Mustard This is a story of girl meets printer. A customer service assistant spends her long workdays printing letters. Her one friend is the printer and, in the dark confines of her office, she begins to open up to him, talking about her fears, her past, her hopes and dreams. To her, it seems like a beautiful friendship is blossoming. To her boss, it seems like she's losing her mind. Diagnosed with burnout and placed on leave, she faces severance and – worse – separation from her beloved printer. But she's not about to give up on her only friend without a fight. And, it turns out, neither is he... Weird, incisive and unforgettable, Hard Copy is perfect for fans of Sayaka Murata and Halle Butler.
'Joyful, tender, and strangely relatable . . . With sharp, playful prose, Veldman tells a story in equal parts searing intelligence and madcap sweetness. Simply brilliant.' Jenny Mustard This is a story of girl meets printer. A customer service assistant spends her long workdays printing letters. Her one friend is the printer and, in the dark confines of her office, she begins to open up to him, talking about her fears, her past, her hopes and dreams. To her, it seems like a beautiful friendship is blossoming. To her boss, it seems like she's losing her mind. Diagnosed with burnout and placed on leave, she faces severance and – worse – separation from her beloved printer. But she's not about to give up on her only friend without a fight. And, it turns out, neither is he... Weird, incisive and unforgettable, Hard Copy is perfect for fans of Sayaka Murata and Halle Butler.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
About the Author-
Fien Veldman is the 2021 recipient of the Joost Zwagerman Essay Award for her essay 'Not really making it', about growing up in a working-class neighbourhood in Leeuwarden. In 2018 she won the Elise Mathilde Essay Award for her essay 'Borders, doors and eyes open'. Hard Copy is her debut novel.
Reviews-
September 16, 2024 Veldman debuts with the monotonous story of an office worker who befriends her desktop printer. The unnamed narrator works a low-paying admin job for a start-up, where her printer, whom she inexplicably anthropomorphizes, is the only one in the office she can really talk to. She tells the printer her life story, focusing on her family’s financial hardships when she was a girl and her chronic insecurity among wealthy and cultured people. She and the printer are separated when she’s required to set out on the sweltering streets of her unnamed city to track down a package that was mistakenly sent to the company’s old address. Upon her return, she’s reprimanded by her boss for spending too much time talking on the phone (he’s been overhearing her conversations with the printer), and he places her on temporary leave. Bereft without her friend, she’s not sure how to go on. Later, Veldman switches to the printer’s perspective during the woman’s leave, and the printer reveals how he misses his “partner.” Despite some charming moments, the characterization of the office worker is too thin for readers to feel much of a connection to her. This fails to make good on its promising conceit.
Jente Posthuma, author of What I'd Rather Not Think About
Despite its whimsical premise, Hard Copy is at its heart a joyful, tender, and strangely relatable novel. With sharp, playful prose Veldman tells a story in equal parts searing intelligence and madcap sweetness. Simply brilliant.
Anindita Ghose, author of The Illuminated
This novel has it all. It's smart, captivating, poignant, absurd, moving, and terribly funny.
Havermelkelite
Rounded with sharp observations and surprising humour, Hard Copy is an incisive commentary on social isolation – a young woman's desperate search for connection in these late-capitalist times.
Noordhollands Dagblad
A beautiful, at times absurdist and moving debut
Friesch Dagblad
In clear, bright language, Fien Veldman accurately depicts a world, a social background, that eats its way through the individual... A novel like an autopsy.
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