In her new novel, De trooster , Esther Gerritsen writes about the will to be good and the attraction of people who do bad things. “It is calmer to think that you are full of petty feelings.”

Your main character is the deeply religious sexton of a monastic order …

She laughs. “Yes.”

… who never doubts his love for Jesus …

“Yes Yes.”

… And never let the reader doubt that. How do you come up with it?

“I wanted to do something with religion …” She laughs a little louder and says it again, now mockingly. “I wanted to do something with religion, haha.”