Kartonnen Dozen by Tom Lanoye

A candid, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age narrative that follows a boy growing up in a working-class Flemish family in the 1960s–70s, tracing memories of poverty, a strict Catholic upbringing, family tensions and sexual awakening. The narrator unpacks childhood traumas, domestic conflicts and small-town hypocrisies with dark humor and lyrical reflection, showing how language, theater and imagination become means of escape and self-discovery.