THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF A POSTWAR MASTERPIECE'I work in an office. I take cards out of a file. Once I have taken them out, I put them back in again. That is it.'Twenty-three-year-old Frits - office worker, daydreamer, teller of inappropriate jokes - finds life absurd and inexplicable. He lives with his parents, who drive him mad. He has terrible, disturbing dreams of death and destruction. Sometimes he talks to a toy rabbit.This is the story of ten evenings in Frits's life at the end of December, as he drinks, smokes, sees friends, aimlessly wanders the gloomy city street and tries to make sense of the minutes, hours and days that stretch before him.Darkly funny and mesmerising, The Evenings takes the tiny, quotidian triumphs and heartbreaks of our everyday lives and turns them into a work of brilliant wit and profound beauty.

"This is the highest kind of achievement of which fiction is capable. . . . Ranks with the finest European fiction of recent years."—The Christian Science MonitorUli Bouwmeester is a retired variety artiste who spends his days whiling away his time. Out of the blue, an invitation arrives to play the leading part in a new drama at the Actor's Theater in Amsterdam, and he is flung with a vengeance from the monotony of life in the suburbs into the reality of the 1980s. All goes well until a television crew arrives to interview Uli, revealing a secret from his past that threatens not only the success of the theater's enterprise but also Uli's life."In his corner of Europe, Dutch novelist Harry Mulisch is creating some of the more haunting, provocative fiction to emerge from the continent in the past decade."—New York Newsday

Experience the scenic canals, colorful markets, and medieval history of the top cities in Belgium and the Netherlands. Inside Moon Amsterdam, Brussels & Bruges you'll find: Flexible itineraries for 1 to 5 days in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Bruges that can be combined into a longer trip Strategic advice for foodies, art lovers, history buffs, and more Top experiences and unique highlights: Cyclealong serene canals and narrow brick roads past baroque architecture, or stroll through Bruges's grand Markt Square. Marvel at the works of famed Dutch and Flemish painters, walk through history at the Anne Frank House, or remember the fallen in the cemeteries and memorials of Ypres The best local flavors: Sip on Amsterdam's specialty liquor at a jenever tasting room, or enjoy a glass of authentic Trappist beer produced in monasteries. Snack on Belgian frites, sample stroopwafel, and savor scrumptious local chocolates Ideas for side trips from each city, including Lisse, The Hague, Rotterdam, and more Expert insight from Karen Turner, an expat who's called the Netherlands home for years Full-color photos and detailed maps throughout Helpful resources on COVID-19 and traveling to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Bruges Background information on the landscape, history, and cultural customs of each city Handy tools such as visa information, Dutch, Flemish, and French phrasebooks, and tips for seniors, LGBTQ+ travelers, visitors with children, and more Experience the best of these three cities at your own pace with Moon Amsterdam, Brussels & Bruges.Exploring more of Europe's best cities? Check out Moon Rome, Florence & Venice or Moon Prague, Vienna & Budapest.About Moon Travel Guides: Moon was founded in 1973 to empower independent, active, and conscious travel. We prioritize local businesses, outdoor recreation, and traveling strategically and sustainably. Moon Travel Guides are written by local, expert authors with great stories to tell—and they can't wait to share their favorite places with you.For more inspiration, follow @moonguides on social media.

Jean-Baptiste Clamence is a soul in turmoil. Over several drunken nights he regales a chance acquaintance with his story. From this successful former lawyer and seemingly model citizen a compelling, self-loathing catalogue of guilt, hypocrisy and alienation pours forth. "The Fall" (1956) is a brilliant portrayal of a man who has glimpsed the hollowness of his existence. But beyond depicting one man's disillusionment, Camus's novel exposes the universal human condition and its absurdities - and our innocence that, once lost, can never be recaptured.

In the 1630s the Netherlands was gripped by tulipmania: a speculative fever unprecedented in scale and, as popular history would have it, folly. We all know the outline of the story—how otherwise sensible merchants, nobles, and artisans spent all they had (and much that they didn’t) on tulip bulbs. We have heard how these bulbs changed hands hundreds of times in a single day, and how some bulbs, sold and resold for thousands of guilders, never even existed. Tulipmania is seen as an example of the gullibility of crowds and the dangers of financial speculation.But it wasn’t like that. As Anne Goldgar reveals in Tulipmania, not one of these stories is true. Making use of extensive archival research, she lays waste to the legends, revealing that while the 1630s did see a speculative bubble in tulip prices, neither the height of the bubble nor its bursting were anywhere near as dramatic as we tend to think. By clearing away the accumulated myths, Goldgar is able to show us instead the far more interesting reality: the ways in which tulipmania reflected deep anxieties about the transformation of Dutch society in the Golden Age.“Goldgar tells us at the start of her excellent debunking book: ‘Most of what we have heard of [tulipmania] is not true.’. . . She tells a new story.”—Simon Kuper, Financial Times

Rare book

This internationally acclaimed novel is the fictional monologue of Hendrickje Stoffels, Rembrandt's last mistress. It combines all the qualities of a naturalist tragedy, historical novel and exposition of seventeenth-century Dutch society. Matton has researched not only Rembrandt's life and works, but also contemporary Amsterdam and the Black Death to provide an intriguing, intimate and privileged view into the painter's life.Above all, this is Hendrickje's story. A sensitive innocent, she escapes the harsh realities of her garrison home-town to become a servant in Rembrandt's household. She soon becomes his lover and closest confidante, filling the void in his life resulting from the death of his wife and two of their children. 'Reborn at twenty' in Rembrandt's studio, enlightened by the positive values of beauty, truth, love and art, Hendrickje is fated to discover the hypocrisy and fickleness of Amsterdam society, which ostracises her and precipitates Rembrandt's final collapse.In a serene, sensuous style of writing, Matton paints a powerful fictional portrait of this impassioned relationship in the fascinating context of a turbulent era of Dutch history.

On the eve of Holland's liberation from the Nazis, Anton, a young man from a lower-class family stands on the bank of an Amsterdam river and recalls the golden summer of 1939, which he spent with David, a self-assured, affluent teenager, as they train as oarsmen on the river under the tutelage of a German coach.

Now a Major Motion PictureTODAY Book Club pickTIME magazine’s #1 Fiction Book of 2012"The greatest romance story of this decade." —Entertainment Weekly-Millions of copies sold-#1 New York Times Bestseller#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller#1 USA Today Bestseller#1 International Bestseller#1 Indie BestsellerDespite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Marie Deniet, a philosophy student, tries to understand the laws under which seven men, an artist, a priest, an epileptic, a philosopher, an astrologer, a physicist, and a pychiatrist, have chosen to live

In an edgy psychological thriller that is as mesmerizing as it is profound, Rupert Thomson fearlessly delves into the darkest realm of the human spirit to reveal the sinister connection between sexuality and power.Stepping out of his Amsterdam studio one April afternoon to buy cigarettes for his girlfriend, a dashing 29-year old Englishman reflects on their wonderful seven-year relationship, and his stellar career as an internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer. But the nameless protagonist's destiny takes an unthinkably horrifying turn when a trio of mysterious cloaked and hooded women kidnap him, chain him to the floor of a stark white room to keep as their sexual prisoner, and subjected him to eighteen days of humiliation, mutilation, and rape. Then, after a bizarrely public performance, he is released, only to be held captive in the purgatory of his own guilt and torment: The realization that no one will believe his strange story. Coolly revelatory, meticulously crafted, The Book of Revelationis Rupert Thomson at his imaginative best.

Sepha survives the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands only to see her marriage to Mark, whom she met during the war, nearly destroyed by his philandering

Updated with enlightening new material, this is the complete, definitive edition of Anne Frank’s diary, “the single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust” (The New York Times Book Review)Discovered in the attic where she spnt the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.In 1942, as Nazis occupied Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the secret upstairs rooms of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death.In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, Anne’s account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.Praise for The Diary of a Young Girl“One of the most moving personal documents to come out of World War II.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer“There may be no better way to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II than to reread The Diary of a Young Girl, a testament to an indestructible nobility of spirit in the face of pure evil.”—Chicago Tribune“The single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust . . . remains astonishing and excruciating.”—The New York Times Book Review“How brilliantly Anne Frank captures the self-conscious alienation and naïve self-absorption of adolescence.”—Newsday

Since its publication in 1947, Anne Frank's Diary has been read by tens of millions of people. This Definitive Edition restores substantial material omitted from the original edition, giving us a deeper insight into Anne Frank's world. Her curiosity about her emerging sexuality, the conflicts with her mother, her passion fo

Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama re-creates in precise detail a nation's mental state. He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-speculators. He tells us how the Dutch celebrated themselves and how they were slandered by their enemies."History on the grand scale...An ambitious portrait of one of the most remarkable episodes in modern history."--New York Times"Wonderfully inclusive; with wit and intense curiosity he teases out meaning from every aspect of Dutch seventeenth-century life."--Robert Hughes

A revelatory look at what happens when political Islam collides with the secular WestIan Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam is a masterpiece of investigative journalism, a book with the intimacy and narrative control of a crime novel and the analytical brilliance for which Buruma is renowned. On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that "insulted the prophet Mohammed." The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.