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The Discovery of Heaven

Author Harry Mulisch
Translated by Paul Vincent
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Paperback
$30.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
On sale Nov 01, 1997 | 736 Pages | 9780140239379
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"Exhilerating, magnificent, dangerous." -- The Times Literary Supplement (London)

One of the great novels of the Twentieth Century, described by John Updike as a meditation on "the persistence of trauma, the rapacity of eros, the fragility of our orderly schemes"

On a cold night in Holland two men meet and change each other's lives forever. Max Delius - a hedonistic, yet brilliant astronomer who loves fast cars, nice clothes and beautiful women - picks up Onno Quist, a cerebral chaotic philologist who cannot bear the ordinariness of everyday life. Despite their differences, they fast become great friends.
And when they learn they were conceived on the same day, it is clear that their meeting is no coincidence. As the pair fall into and out of love with the same woman - Ada - so their lives become further intertwined. For all three are on a mysterious journey destined to shape human history.
The Discovery of Heaven is internationally recognized as a masterpiece. Rich in philosophical, psychological, historical and theological enquiry, it is an extravagant, bold and satisfying novel of ideas.
Born in 1927 to a Jewish mother whose family died in the concentration camps and an Austrian father who was jailed after the war for collaborating with the Nazis, HARRY MULISCH is one of Holland's most acclaimed writers. He is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, nonfiction, commentary, plays, and poetry, many of them having as their subject the Second World War. His novel The Assault (1982) was translated into more than two dozen languages and adapted into a film (1986) that won both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. Mulisch's work is also popular among the country's public: a 2007 poll of NRC Handelsblad readers voted his novel The Discovery of Heaven (1992) the greatest Dutch book ever written. Mulisch died in the Netherlands in 2010. View titles by Harry Mulisch

About

"Exhilerating, magnificent, dangerous." -- The Times Literary Supplement (London)

One of the great novels of the Twentieth Century, described by John Updike as a meditation on "the persistence of trauma, the rapacity of eros, the fragility of our orderly schemes"

On a cold night in Holland two men meet and change each other's lives forever. Max Delius - a hedonistic, yet brilliant astronomer who loves fast cars, nice clothes and beautiful women - picks up Onno Quist, a cerebral chaotic philologist who cannot bear the ordinariness of everyday life. Despite their differences, they fast become great friends.
And when they learn they were conceived on the same day, it is clear that their meeting is no coincidence. As the pair fall into and out of love with the same woman - Ada - so their lives become further intertwined. For all three are on a mysterious journey destined to shape human history.
The Discovery of Heaven is internationally recognized as a masterpiece. Rich in philosophical, psychological, historical and theological enquiry, it is an extravagant, bold and satisfying novel of ideas.

Author

Born in 1927 to a Jewish mother whose family died in the concentration camps and an Austrian father who was jailed after the war for collaborating with the Nazis, HARRY MULISCH is one of Holland's most acclaimed writers. He is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, nonfiction, commentary, plays, and poetry, many of them having as their subject the Second World War. His novel The Assault (1982) was translated into more than two dozen languages and adapted into a film (1986) that won both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. Mulisch's work is also popular among the country's public: a 2007 poll of NRC Handelsblad readers voted his novel The Discovery of Heaven (1992) the greatest Dutch book ever written. Mulisch died in the Netherlands in 2010. View titles by Harry Mulisch

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