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The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
Memoir, 1947. Translated from Dutch
Anne Frank, German-born but raised in Amsterdam, records life in hiding in the occupied city, 1942–44, in the Secret Annex.
Books set in the Netherlands
Four books by writers from the Netherlands, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with The Diary of a Young Girl and Turkish Delight.
About the literature of the Netherlands
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl, written in hiding in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1944, is one of the best-known books from the Netherlands. Born in Germany and raised in Amsterdam, she wrote it in Dutch, in the Secret Annex where her family lived through the occupation. Dutch literature goes back much further: in the seventeenth century Joost van den Vondel, widely seen as the great poet of the Dutch Golden Age, wrote the verse play Gijsbrecht van Aemstel. In modern fiction, Amsterdam and the aftermath of the war come up again and again.
Gerard Reve's The Evenings follows an Amsterdam clerk through the last ten days of 1946, a bleak picture of everyday life in postwar Amsterdam. Jan Wolkers's Turkish Delight is a frank love story of the 1960s, set among the city's bohemian artists and its shifting morals.
By writers from the Netherlands
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Turkish Delight
Jan Wolkers
Novel, 1969. Translated from Dutch
Frank, provocative Amsterdam love story of the 1960s that captures the city's bohemian art scene and shifting morals.
The Evenings
Gerard Reve
Novel, 1947. Translated from Dutch by Sam Garrett
Amsterdam clerk's bleak last ten days of 1946, showing the drab everyday life of postwar Dutch suburbia.
The Twin
Gerbrand Bakker
Novel, 2006. Translated from Dutch
A taciturn farmer works his late brother's land in rural Gelderland, with a stark picture of Dutch countryside life, seasons and reserve.
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