Yeah, it's presumably a matter of interest - we are a (relatively) smaller language, and both Belgium and the Netherlands are very internationally oriented, so it may just be that we're more interested in translations of foreign authors, our fiction bestseller lists are heavily dominated by translated works. In fact I remember a few cases of high-profile books of which the Dutch translation was released simultaneously with the original, or even before the original.



I don't believe he knows Dutch, but I read an interview with him a few months ago - around the time the Dutch translation was published, no doubt - in which he did talk about how he had a lot of faith in the two women who always translate his books into Dutch. In fact he said in that interview that a number of his translators had made helpful suggestions or corrections of errors - supposedly his Japanese translator informed him that "there was a corpse too many" in some scene, iirc, and he fixed it before the release.