Review by Frank Plowright

Two translations of Dutch creator Erik Kriek’s work have previously appeared in English, and they’ve both been intelligent, absorbing and beautifully drawn. The Pit continues that streak.

Sara is a painter who’s never properly recovered from the death of her son several years previously when he was thirteen. She harbours the guilt of responsibility, and her partner Hugh hopes a move to a rural property bequeathed by a relative might spark a renewal of both Sara’s artistic instincts and their relationship.

Kriek’s very much at home drawing remote areas, relishing the woods surrounding the ramshackle property and the way trees twist and shape their environment. Everything being painted in autumnal shades of green and brown cements the atmosphere. The tragedy alone adds darkness, but for much of The Pit Kriek sustains a tension through nothing more than isolation, a few strange sigils carved into trees and Sara’s continuing nightmares. Cleverly conceived visual allusions add to the foreboding.

At heart The Pit is an extremely simple story grounded by well transmitted human concerns. When Sara decides she should no longer be taking her medication it won’t only be her agent who’s anxious about the consequences, as Kriek’s established a couple to care for. There’s an impressive efficiency in how the balance of normal life has the occasional intrusion of something uncanny, and the way Kriek transmits human error. While Hugh has coped with Ruben’s death far better than Sara and is supportive, there’s also an unthinking side to him, betraying a lack of total understanding. The drama flows naturally from the circumstances.

Whether or not Kriek has seen French TV series The Returned is unknown, but he begins to play with similar motifs, although takes the story in a very different direction. The mood is maintained throughout, escalating toward the well conceived ending, although it won’t please readers who expect everything explained.

Kriek’s small, but perfectly formed body of English translations marks him as a creator of note and one more people should be aware of.