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ONE OF THE MAJOR POST-WORLD WAR II EUROPEAN WORKS OF LITERATURE AND AN INTERNATIONAL BEST-SELLER FROM THE AOUTHOR OF THE WIDELY PRAISED THE ASSAULT AND LAST CALL
The Assault was a "triumph," wrote The New York Times Book Review; a powerful portrait of "moral devastation revealed with X-ray cunning." Last Call was hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as "impressive, subtly constructed and elegantly written...rich in scenes of great beauty and emotional power." Now Harry Mulisch has given us his magnum opus. In this rich mosaic of twentieth-century trauma, characters embody variations on friendship, loyalty, family art, history, technology, religion, fate, good and evil to compose that rare literary phenomenon - a novel of ideas that also tells an excellent story.
It is a tale in which two friends stand in contrast. On a cold night in Holland, Max Delius - a hedonist, yeat a rhetorically brillian astronomer who loves fast cars, nice clothes, and women - picks up a hitchhiker, Onno Quist, a cerebral, chaotic philologist who cannot bear the banalities of everyday life. They are like fire and water. But soon after they learn that they were conceived on the same day in 1933, it is clear that something special, even extraordinary, is about to happen.
One is haunted by the furure, the other by the past. Both are caught up in the exhaustin gstruggle against forces beyond their control. Max and Onno are inseparable...until Max meets the beautiful and gifted cellist Ada, and introduces her to Onno. At the center of their relationship lies the battle between humanistic values and technological progress...and an especially radieant child, Onno's son, Quinten. Quinten's sublimity - in his beauty, intelligence, wand demeanor, - becomes even more apparent when, after the heavens conspire agains Onno and Max, Quinten embarkes on a journey that can only be completed by a child with his incredible gifts.
Abounding in philopophical, psychological, and theological inquireies, yet laced with humour that is as infectious as it is wilful, The Discovery of Heaven lingers in the mind long after it has been read, offering itself up to many interpretations over time. Mulisch's magnificent work makes us, his readers, believe that it is possible to bring order into the chaos of the world through a story.
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Previews available in: French English Dutch German
Subjects
literary fiction, Multatuliprijs winnaar, Mekka-prijs winnaar, Beste Nederlandstalige boeken, Astronomers, Fiction, Male friendship, Philologists, Astronom, Politiker, Männerfreundschaft, Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), Fiction, general, Netherlands, fictionPeople
Onno Quist, Max Delius, Quinten Quist, Ada Brons, Sophia Brons, BrunoPlaces
Kamp Westerbork, Leiden, Amsterdam, Cuba, Nederland, The NetherlandsShowing 5 featured editions. View all 16 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
La Découverte du ciel
2007-01-05, Gallimard
Mass Market Paperback
in French
2070418871 9782070418879
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2 |
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3
The Discovery of Heaven: a novel
1996, Viking
Hardcover
in English
- 1st printing
0670856681 9780670856688
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4
De ontdekking van de hemel: Roman
1994 September, De Bezige Bij
Hardcover
in Dutch
- 7. druk.
9023461231 9789023461234
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5
Die Entdeckung des Himmels
1993, Carl Hanser
Hardcover
in German
- printing (9)
3446173773 9783446173774
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Work Description
Dit monumentale boek, waarin alle thema's en obsessies uit het werk van Harry Mulisch in 65 hoofdstukken bijeenkomen, is tegelijk een psychologische roman, een filosofische roman, een tijdroman, een ontwikkelingsroman, een avonturenroman en een alles overkoepelend mysteriespel.
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