He won the International Dublin Literary Award for The Twin, the English translation of his novel Boven is het stil, and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The Detour, the English translation of his novel De omweg.

Among Bakker's other works are a children's dictionary and Pear Trees Bloom White, a young adult novel.

[1] He thought about a son who might "do something terrible to his father" but was left "frustrated" when the idea failed to progress any further until one day he began to write at random.

Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven libraries all nominated The Twin for the International Dublin Literary Award.

[1] Colmer translated the book from its original Dutch into the English language and received €25,000 of the prize money for his efforts.

[1] Bakker said he planned to buy a Dutch grey horse with his money as "I just love these big beasts".

[1] De omweg, Bakker's third adult novel was published in October 2010 and later translated into English as The Detour, again by David Colmer.

It is a study in self-searching, self-assertion and the nature of pain, narrated by a middle-aged Dutchwoman who has fled her husband to live in the solitude of rural Wales.