A taut, disquieting novel from one of the Netherlands’ most fearless and acclaimed writers.In Man Without Illness, Arnon Grunberg strips down the idea of Western idealism and cultural neutrality through the story of Samarendra Ambani—Sam—a successful Swiss architect who believes, with quiet conviction, that buildings can make life better. Healthy in body, precise in thought, and untouched by suffering, Sam is the “man without illness.” But when he travels ...

The darkly beautiful novelistic memoir of a childhood spent in the shadow of a domineering, abusive father This is a story she never wanted to tell, but in the end she had no choice. When her older sister dies at the age of sixty-nine, it brings back a past the author thought she had left behind. Incensed, she delves back into her childhood, recreating the abusive world that she grew up in, ruled over by her tyrannical father, The Minotaur. In a narrative by turns shockingly dark and stran...

Geert Mak spent the year 1999 criss-crossing the continent, tracing the history of Europe from Verdun to Berlin, St Petersburg to Auschwitz, Kiev to Srebrenica. He set off in search of evidence and witnesses, looking to define the condition of Europe at the verge of a new millennium.The result is mesmerising: Mak's rare double talent as a sharp-eyed journalist and a hugely imaginative historian makes In Europe a dazzling account of that journey, full of diaries, newspaper ...

The Dutch bestsellerNominated for Le Prix Nicolas Bouvier'A masterclass in storytelling, exploring who we are and where we came from' Danielle Clode'Gripping and brilliantly told, We Hominids deftly blends personal experience with a journalist's eye for a remarkable story' Mark McKennaWHO ARE WE? WHY ARE WE DIFFERENT FROM ANIMALS? WHAT MAKES US HUMAN?In this...

THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER THAT'S GOT EVERYONE TALKING...A summer's evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the delicate scraping of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of politeness - the banality of work, the triviality of holidays. But the empty words hide a terrible conflict and, with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened...Each couple has a f...

'An absolute page-turner' Mail on SundayDear Mr. M,I'd like to start by telling you that I'm doing better now. I do so because you probably have no idea that I was ever doing worse. Much worse, in fact, but I'll get to that later on.Mr. M is being watched. As a famous writer, he is no stranger to the limelight, although interest in his work has been dwindling of late. His print runs are smaller than they used to be, as are...

Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2021'Herman Koch has made a career from saying the apparently unsayable.' - Financial TimesWhen Robert Walter, the popular mayor of Amsterdam, sees his wife toss her head back with laughter while chatting to one of his aldermen at a New Year's reception, he immediately suspects she is cheating on him. Though happily married, he has always wondered why Sylvia, born and raised in a distant cou...

The new novel by the internationally acclaimed author- "a farce of nuclear proportions"(Vanity Fair)Arnon Grunberg is one of the most subtly outrageous provocateurs in world literature. The Jewish Messiah, which chronicles the evolution of one Xavier Radek from malcontent grandson of a former SS officer, to Jewish convert, to co- translator of Hitler's Mein Kampf into Yiddish, to Israeli politician and Israel's most unlikely prime ministe...

Mount Ararat in Turkey is where, as biblical tradition has it, Noah's Ark ran aground and God made his covenant with mankind. Now it stands astride the fault-line between religion and science, a geographical, political and cultural crossroads, bound up with the centuries-old history of warfare between different cultures in this region. Frank Westerman takes a pilgrimage from the mountain's foot to its highest slopes, meeting along the way geologists, priests and an expedition in search of ...

Istanbul's Galata Bridge has spanned the Golden Horn since the sixth century AD, connecting the old city with the more Western districts to the north. But the bridge is a city in itself, peopled by merchants and petty thieves, tourists and fishermen, and at the same time a microcosmic reflection of Turkey as the link between Asia and Europe.Geert Mak introduces us to the cigarette vendors and the best pickpockets in Europe, to the pride of the cobbler and the tea-seller's homesickn...

' "When you touch a Lipizzaner, you're touching history," Westerman was once told. His elegant book offers fascinating proof' Financial TimesFrank Westerman explores the history of Lipizzaners, an extraordinary troop of pedigree horses bred as personal mounts for the Emperor of Austria-Hungary. Following the bloodlines of the stud book, he reconstructs the story of four generations of imperial steed as they survive the fall of the Habsburg Empire, two world wars and the in...

What happens to the father of a 13-year-old son, when he discovers that he has been infertile all his life? That intriguing question is the starting point of A Father's Affair. On his quest to discover the biological father of his son, the protagonist, Armin Minderhout, takes the reader on an extraordinary journey, one in which he is forced to reconsider everything he has ever believed in. With the page-turning suspense of a 'whodunnit', A Father's Affair probes the etern...