Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

The Sorrow of Belgium: the title couldn’t be more symbolic in these times of warring communities, the threat of a schism and flag-waving. How significant is Hugo Claus’s magnum opus 25 years after its first publication? Which writers worry about this country? Your host Fien Sabbe confronts a panel of four avid readers with The Sorrow of Belgium, this divided country and with themselves. The panel will consist of Steven Vanackere, minister in the Flemish goverment; Hilde Van Mieghem, actress and film director; Jos Geysels, minister of State and Anna Luyten, journalist for Knack. We’ll also discuss Pascal Verbeken’s Arm Wallonië and Belgicum by photographer Stephan Vanfleteren.

And because not all is suffering in this country of beer, pleasure and (in)certainties, Uitgelezen offers you Zak’s (side-)splitting cartoons, a generous tombola and a musical earthquake in the form of Zornik frontman Koen Buyse.