Hard Copy

’Many astute observations about loneliness [and] class attitudes... very funny on the tedium of office life.’ Irish Independent

’Joyful, tender, and strangely relatable . . . With sharp, playful prose, Veldman tells a story in equal parts searing intelligence and madcap sweetness. Simply brilliant.’ Jenny Mustard

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 she’s losing her mind.

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

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.