Netherlands Netherland (Vintage Contemporaries)
Netherlands Netherland (Vintage Contemporaries)
The book jacket of the hard-bound edition is
entrancingly deceptive. Printed on what feels like watercolor paper, it
shows a colored vignette of men in white playing cricket on a village
green watched by spectators relaxing in the shade of a spreading
chestnut tree. It could well be the nineteenth century, except that the
skyline in the background is Manhattan, and Joseph O'Neill's novel is
set in the first years of the present century. Written in a style of
such lucidity that it might almost be an autobiographical memoir, it is
the narrative of three years or so in New York City. The protagonist
Hans van den Broek, a Dutch-born financial analyst, thirtyish and near
the top of his profession, arrives there at the start of the millennium
with Rachel, his English wife, herself a high-powered lawyer. But after
the attacks of 9/11, Rachel returns to England with their infant son.
Hans stays on.
Netherlands Netherland (Vintage Contemporaries)
.jpg "Netherlands Netherland (Vintage Contemporaries)")