Kampen, Kraggenburg, Genemuiden

Vogeleiland (Bird Island) is a thriller written by Marion Pauw. The book won the Gouden Strop 2022, a literature prize for the best Dutch-language suspense novel. The story is set around Kampen. Use this route to cycle past the places featured in the book and let the story come to life! But even without knowing the book, this is a beautiful route along the water, bird-rich islands and through the heart of Kampen.

Sisters Marianne (15) and Nicole (13) live with their father and mother in Kampen. They lead a normal existence, at least to the outside world. Marianne is a rebellious child: she smokes, drinks, blows, plays truant regularly and comes home late. As a result, there are often arguments in the house. Nicole therefore behaves as exemplary as possible to cause as little trouble as possible. Marianne thinks her sister is a softie. But although Marianne crosses all boundaries during the day, she is different at night. Then she quietly sneaks into her sister's bedroom, to snuggle up to her and continue sleeping together.

One day, while playing truant, Marianne walks through the pouring rain along the IJsselkade with her bike in hand. Her tyre is flat. Berend, a man twenty years older, sees her walking and offers to help. He repairs her bike and lets her warm up in his work shed. Other than that, they don't say much to each other that day. Yet he unintentionally manages to win Marianne's trust. She visits him more and more often and sometimes even joins him at work: catching muskrats on the nature islands in Ketel Lake. Marianne dreams of a life in the wild and loves the fact that Berend knows so much about nature. They eventually fall in love with each other and Berend breaks off his current relationship with Bettina.

The two sometimes talked about going to live on one of the nature islands they called ‘Bird Island’ among themselves. Jokingly, Berend thought, but suddenly Marianne was on the doorstep with a sleeping bag and a camping gas stove: ‘Come on, we're going to move to the island!’ Marianne had run away from her family, leaving only a note. From then on, she had disappeared without a trace to her family. When Berend sees a large bruise on her shoulder, he has an inkling why she is so eager to leave.

Nicole and her parents search in vain for years for their lost daughter, not knowing that just a few kilometres away on an island she has built her own existence with Berend. On ‘their’ Bird Island, where it is forbidden to set foot on land, the couple have built a hut that is half underground, half above ground and well camouflaged. They live off what they find in nature or grow themselves on the island. Marianne gets pregnant and wants to return to civilisation before she gives birth. She can't, because then Berend will have to go to jail. After all, no one will believe that the missing girl herself wanted to go to this island with him....

From then on, Marianne becomes Berend's prisoner. She will never be allowed to leave the island again. She gives birth to a baby daughter, Pup. Marianne falls into years of postnatal depression, no longer responds to Berend and does not care for Pup. Berend chains her up so she can't do anything to Pup, and takes charge of their child. Pup grows up in nature, learning which plants she can eat and catching animals with a bow and arrow. She cooks for her parents and is obsessed with the many birds. But even she is not allowed to go to the ‘outside world’ by Berend. Officially, of course, she does not exist and Berend is afraid that such a ‘wild person’ among the ‘tame people’, as they call themselves, would immediately stand out. Their secret existence must not come out.

Berend occasionally goes back to Kampen to get groceries. For instance, to get Marianne's favourite cake for her birthday: Kamperslof with forest fruits and extra lots of whipped cream. ‘Marianne always wants that too,’ he suddenly heard behind him after he had placed his order at Bakkerij Smit. It was Marianne's mother. In retrospect, it turns out that she found Berend's order suspicious, but by now she was so quick to find people suspicious that the police no longer took it seriously.

Nicole finds it increasingly difficult to deal with her mother. Fortunately, she finds support from her manager at the HEMA, since she has a side job there. It's Bettina, Berend's ex. Berend also runs into Bettina again at the time when she is pregnant and her boyfriend has left her. He starts a relationship with her again and even marries her.

At their wedding, he comes face to face with Nicole. Berend keeps a low profile and doesn't let on. Ever since Pup was born, he has been twisting and turning to keep his double life a secret. But then, at Marianne's behest, Pup goes in search of her sister Nicole, who has now gone to live in Spain.

Will Pup manage to find Nicole? And would Berend be able to keep his secret any longer?

This cycle route was developed in cooperation with Nextory, a streaming service with hundreds of thousands of audiobooks and e-books. Want to know how the search for Marianne ends? Listen or read the story in Nextory's app.

Find the entire route a bit too long?
- Shorten to 55 km by cycling the following junctions from junction 35: 34-16-15-21-22-28-12-45-41 (or vice versa from junction 41).
- Shorten to 39 km by cycling the following junctions from junction 35: 34-16-14-13-41 (or vice versa from junction 41).