Salzburg Easter Festival
In 1997, she published her semi-autobiographical debut novel, "Het Lelietheater" ("The Lily Theatre"), which is strewn with Chinese-language proverbs and rhymes translated into Dutch. The novel sold over 800,000 copies in the Netherlands and earned her the Gouden Ezelsoor in 1998 for the bestselling literary debut work; the following year, it won an International Nonino Prize at the Salzburg Easter Festival. In 1997, she was noted to be the best-selling Dutch-language author. The novel has been translated from Dutch into several languages, including English.