Tommy Wieringa - De heilige Rita - 2017

Did the Dutch Chinese writer Lulu Wang sell just under a million copies of her book 'The Lily Theater' in the Netherlands alone based solely on its literary value? No, of course not. The success of her debut in 1997, published by Vassalluci, was purely and simply due to the introduction of the concept of marketing into the literary world: the book as a product. And credit where credit is due, it was Oscar van Gelderen (later Lebowski) who successfully introduced the concept into the then-conservative publishing industry.
We can do that too, they thought about twenty years later at De Bezige Bij in Amsterdam. And believe it or not, to breathe some life back into Tommy ‘Speedboot’ Wieringa’s dormant followers, his latest novel, ‘De heilige Rita,’ was preceded by a very well-thought-out marketing trick: the 0th edition!
Funny as it may be, the so-called 'uncorrected proof' book variant, which has only sporadically spread from the US into the Dutch language area, is of course nonsense. Because the 0th edition of a book does not exist, if you interpret the '0' as the usual 'not'.
Well, the 0th edition of De heilige Rita definitely exists. And it's also in a very limited edition. You need to keep the enthusiasts eager.
The first edition of this copy has been read—if at all—very carefully. In other words, it's in excellent condition, quite nice, you might say! And... it exists. Printed and all.

By the way, at the same Bij, how busy can you be – we can also make jokes – the 'discovery' was repeated two years ago (2023) with Wieringa’s novel 'Nirwana'.