Have you been in this situation just like Muus and the main character? Discover how beautiful, moving and nice it is to recognize yourself in a book.

The Deviation of Dries Muus is an extraordinarily original coming-of-age novel. Just before fourteen-year-old Mattias Groen steps onto the football field at his new club, he makes an appointment with the gods. In exchange for a future as a professional football player, they can do anything to him. It works: Matty conquers a base place, keeps scoring and there is even interest from abroad.

Then a locker room scandal turns his life upside down. The world collapses on him, Matty's mother and his trainer no longer get through to him, and his fight also brings up their own suppressed suffering. As they continue to try to drag the boy through the misery, they imperceptibly push him closer to the abyss with each attempt.

The Deviation is a powerful psychological novel: a vibrant triple portrait of a torn boy, a broken mother and a trainer with a secret. A compelling story about public humiliation and personal taboos, about dark ways out of downward spirals.

'A cult about what it is to be a man.' – Pieter van der Wielen, presenter Never sleep again.

So Muus knows what he is talking about, and you can feel that from the first to the last page. With verve he describes the emotional world of the young player who slowly sinks into a quagmire of uncertainty, self-disgust and unrequited pressure to perform. […] Football is the thread along which Matty's struggles with his sexuality slowly unfold. But it is unclear to the reader in the early chapters whether Matty is actually gay – just as unclear as it is to Matty himself.’ – De Correspondent