Het zwijgen van Jaap #[nn]

Monique van Dongen's Het zwijgen van Jaap — subtitled "Over oorlog en de stilte na thuiskomst" ("About war and the silence after homecoming") — arrives from Oogachtend in 2026 as a deeply personal-feeling graphic work about what veterans carry home with them. The cover, entirely crafted by van Dongen, sets a quietly unsettling tone: a brooding, heavyset man peers over a Dutch newspaper (de Courant), his furrowed brow and guarded eyes hinting at unspoken weight, while framed photographs of a dog, a family group, and a wedding portrait line the wall behind him. It's a tender yet tense image that makes the title's theme of silence feel immediately, compellingly human.