Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist


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Best Dutch book ever: The Discovery Of Heaven

The Discovery Of Heaven.One of my all-time favorite books has been voted the "best Dutch book of all times". It's The Discovery Of Heaven by Harry Mulisch, a novel about the mystical journey of a man to return the Ten Commandments to Heaven.

The vote is based on an internet poll, and I am always skeptical of those because it's so easy to manipulate. However, this first place for what is De Ontdekking Van De Hemel in Dutch is completely deserved. The second place was for Het Huis Van De Moskee by Kader Abdolah, a book completely unknown to me. I looked it up and it was published in 2005.

Strange that this new book ended up above such classics as Max Havelaar or De Avonden, which I suppose proves my point above the unreliability of internet polls (or the odd literary taste of the people that voted). Simon Vestdijk's books didn't even make it into the top 10, neither did Erik, of het klein insectenboek by Godfried Bomans.

The Discovery Of Heaven was published in 1992, the 2nd year I was in high school. Although at that time reading Dutch literature wasn't high on my list with favorite things, I enjoyed reading Mulisch a lot (and so did many of my classmates). In 2001 a movie made of the book came out, which was okay but not as brilliant as the book.

Comments

hee Guus,

Dank voor de link :) Helemaal mee eens, De Ontdekking is geweldig en de titel ook wel waard. Maar het is wonderlijk en toch ook wel jammer dat recente boeken bij dit soort verkiezingen altijd onevenredig hoog scoren. Gebeurt ook bij muziek trouwens. Of bij grootste Nederlanders - zucht. Ben toch benieuwd waar Mulisch zou staan over 100 jaar...

hartelijks,
Jessica

In December 2017 heb ik dit boek opnieuw gelezen, drie jaar nadat ik het uit Nederland had besteld. Het blijft een fantastisch boek, en met name op het einde speelde het mooi in op het kerstseizoen.

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