The Longest Night
Published on 23. March 2017
Book
Hardback
208 pages
978-0-85705-608-5 (ISBN)
Description
A masterpiece of literary craft and concision; sparse, beautiful and hugely affecting - Daily Mail
Since the liberation of the Netherlands, Emma Verweij has been living in Rotterdam, in a street which became a stronghold of friendships for its inhabitants during the Second World War. She marries Bruno, they have two sons, and she determines to block out the years she spent in Nazi Berlin during the war, with her first husband Carl.
But now, ninety-six years old and on the eve of her death, long- forgotten memories crowd again into her consciousness, flashbacks of happier years, and the tragedy of the war, of Carl, of her father, and of the friends she has lost.
In The Longest Night, his impressive, reflective new novel after News from Berlin, Otto de Kat deftly distils momentous events of 20th-century history into the lives of his characters. In Emma, the past and the present coincide in limpid fragments of rare, melancholy beauty.
Translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson
Since the liberation of the Netherlands, Emma Verweij has been living in Rotterdam, in a street which became a stronghold of friendships for its inhabitants during the Second World War. She marries Bruno, they have two sons, and she determines to block out the years she spent in Nazi Berlin during the war, with her first husband Carl.
But now, ninety-six years old and on the eve of her death, long- forgotten memories crowd again into her consciousness, flashbacks of happier years, and the tragedy of the war, of Carl, of her father, and of the friends she has lost.
In The Longest Night, his impressive, reflective new novel after News from Berlin, Otto de Kat deftly distils momentous events of 20th-century history into the lives of his characters. In Emma, the past and the present coincide in limpid fragments of rare, melancholy beauty.
Translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson
Reviews / Votes
A masterpiece of literary craft and concision; sparse, beautiful and hugely affecting. -- John Harding * Daily Mail * De Kat mixes great moral issues with historical events. This is his literary art. The Longest Night is melancholic and brilliantly written. -- Marianne Mielke * Radio Berlin. * Otto de Kat has created a small masterpiece. * Nuernberger Zeitung. * The De Kat Express takes you on a journey without borders. * NRC Handelsblad. * An exceedingly beautiful novel that you read breathless till the end. * E.O. Vision. * These are novels of subtle emotional distance . . . as physical as a blow to the heart -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * One of the Netherlands' most compelling literary voices * Irish Examiner * [A] powerful novel, exploring the impact of war through the lives of its memorable characters. * The Lady *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Quercus Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 194 mm
Width: 142 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
280 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-85705-608-5 (9780857056085)
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Otto de Kat is the pen name of the founder of Dutch non-fiction publishing house Balans, Jan Guert Gaarlandt, also a poet, novelist and critic. His prize-winning novels have been widely published in Europe, and Man on the Move was the winner of the Netherlands' Halewijn Literature Prize. LAURA WATKINSON lived in England, Scotland, Italy and Germany, before settling in the Netherlands in 2003. Her previous translations include Cees Nooteboom's Roads to Berlin, Letters to Poseidon and Venice, Peter Terrin's Post Mortem, Otto de Kat's The Longest Night and Freetown, and Tonke Dragt's The Letter for the King.