The Great Marc Evers
The True Story of a Champion Against All Odds
Author: Ivo van Woerden, Artist: Gemma Plum, Colourist: Marloes Dekkers
Translator: Michele Hutchison
Hardback / 192 pages / Colour / ISBN: 978-1-914224-51-5
Price: UK £22.99/ US $31.94 / CAN $44
UK pub date: 1st October 2026; US pub date: 10th November 2026
The inspiring life story of one of the greatest Paralympic swimming champions, and his family that stopped focusing on a “no” to find a “yes”.
What if you stopped focusing on what’s impossible, and opened yourself up to what’s possible? Marc Evers is two years old and it’s impossible for anyone to get through to him. His parents are told by a psychiatrist he has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and that he’ll never be able to talk or function independently. For this reason, the psychiatrist recommends institutionalization. Thankfully, they don’t listen.
Eighteen years later, Marc is preparing to compete in the 100-metre backstroke at the 2012 London Paralympics. He walks, talks, and rides his bike. He’s his own person, surrounded by a busy family – and he can swim like a torpedo. With five Paralympic medals and many world records, Marc Evers is the Netherlands’ greatest Paralympic swimming champion. How did he manage to beat the odds?
The Great Marc Evers is a moving, intimate, inspiring, and above all optimistic coming-of-age portrait of Marc and his family. A beautifully drawn story about perseverance, hope, and strength, about trusting your intuition and daring to believe.
Ivo van Woerden is a journalist and writer. He has authored various literary non-fiction books and has contributed to Dutch and international newspapers and magazines. He’s been nominated for several writing and journalism awards, and won a prize for his 2015 prose version of The Great Marc Evers. Gemma Plum is a Dutch artist with degrees in industrial design, graphic design, and graphic narrative. Previous projects have seen her work for public libraries, governmental health departments, children’s rights organisations and The City Archive of Rotterdam. Her work and stories have been published in Dutch and international magazines, newspapers and books, as well as featured in several galleries and museums around Europe. Marloes Dekkers is a Dutch comic colourist specialised in the narrative possibilities of colour. She won the P. Hans Frankfurther Prize in 2022 and the Comic Medal for Production in 2008. Michele Hutchison was born in the UK but has lived in the Netherlands since 2004. She translates literary fiction and non-fiction, poetry, graphic novels and children’s books. Her translations for SelfMadeHero include Aimée de Jongh’s The Return of the Honey Buzzard and the Sophie Castille Award-winning graphic novel The Philosopher, the Dog and the Wedding by Barbara Stok.
Marc Evers (born 1991) is a Dutch Paralympic swimmer from Hillegom and one of the Netherlands’ most successful para-athletes. Competing in the S14 classification for swimmers with an intellectual impairment, he won Paralympic gold in the 100m backstroke at the London 2012 Games, setting a world record, and claimed a second Paralympic gold in the 200m individual medley at Rio 2016. A multiple World and European champion, Evers is also an ambassador for autism awareness, inspiring others with his determination and belief in focusing on possibilities rather than limitations.
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