After years of telling stories about other people’s lives behind bars, former prison guard Ela is compelled to tell a more personal story. About a father and two brothers, the true scope of a family secret and her tendency to model reality after her own needs. Who can be called the perpetrator here? And which stories is she actually allowed to tell? ‘Not everything is yours,’ as her eldest brother says. ‘This concerns me too.’
‘In hindsight, I know that we should’ve talked about the silence; how exactly it was distributed across the members of this household, across the family, people we don’t even know, that already made choices generations before. Never do we speak of the power of the silent; talking about silence is like aiming a flashlight at a dark corner to point out the shadow.’
Longlist Libris Literatuur Prijs 2026
“As if it is not her first, but her latest of many novels, so subtle and confident is Ester Naomi Perquin’s writing.” – De Volkskrant
“A bold debut novel, that trusts its reader. Until Things Start to Slide offers rich imagery, beautiful analogies, highly intriguing questions and insights. Perquin’s novel is a remarkable treatise on various forms of imprisonment.” – NRC••••