Hard Copy: A story of girl meets printer

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Description

'A talented new voice worth paying attention to.' Irish Times
'Equal parts searing intelligence and madcap sweetness. Simply brilliant.' Jenny Mustard
'Many astute observations... very funny on the tedium of office life.' Irish Independent

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 shes losing her mind.

Diagnosed with burnout and placed on leave, she faces severance and worse separation from her beloved printer. But shes 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.

Reviews

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. -- Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days
This novel has it all. It's smart, captivating, poignant, absurd, moving, and terribly funny. * Jente Posthuma, author of What I'd Rather Not Think About *

Intimate and surprising at every turn, Hard Copy's distinct narrative voice took me right in from page one. A truly one-of-a-kind novel: I loved it.

-- Sarah Maria Griffin, author of Other Words for Smoke
Rounded with sharp observations and surprising humour, Hard Copy is an incisive commentary on social isolation a young womans desperate search for connection in these late-capitalist times. * Anindita Ghose, author of The Illuminated *
'Many astute observations about loneliness [and] class attitudes... very funny on the tedium of office life.' * Irish Independent *
A talented new voice worth paying attention to. * Irish Times *
Dryly comic... You regularly wonder who is more disturbed here, the protagonist or society. * Het Parool *
A weird, understated and very well written book about a millennial meltdown * Havermelkelite *
A beautiful, at times absurdist and moving debut * Boekblad *
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. -- Manon Uphoff
Absurdist and inventive. Fien Veldman knows how to deal with contemporary cultural phenomena, and she always approaches them astutely and surprisingly' * Tzum *
Wondrous * Noordhollands Dagblad *
A beautiful book * Friesch Dagblad *
Hard Copy is a wonderfully entertaining novel about the struggle to build relationships when ones formative years have already warped their foundation. In a world where machines steadily replace human labour, Veldman explores the search for connections that may not exist and a new, hopefully better reality... bizarre yet poignant' * Daily Dispatch *

Author Bio

Fien Veldman (1990) is 2022's 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. From 2010 until 2016, she worked as a theatre critic. (And, of course, she has also worked in customer service.) Hard Copy is her debut novel.