Isabel lives alone in her family’s country home in the small Dutch town of Zwolle in 1961. Her life, structured by routine within the comforting cocoon of the house, is disrupted when her brother invites his new girlfriend Eva to stay for the summer when he is away on business. Initially, this intrusion into Isabel’s personal space feels utterly unwelcome, and the two women struggle to get along. However, over time, they grow much closer…

Ten-year-old Jas lives with her family on a dairy farm in the Netherlands. Her brother Matthies has died in an ice-skating accident, leaving the family struggling to cope with their grief. Raised in a strictly “Reformed” Protestant family, and with the farm facing financial hardship, Jas grows up in an atmosphere of emotional coldness and oppression. The novel portrays how this tormented and sensitive girl navigates her way through life, guilt, and sexuality.

“The Cut Out Girl” tells the story of a young Jewish girl who was taken in by the author’s grandparents in Dordrecht as a foster child to protect her from the Nazis. However, when the Dutch police began searching the house, the girl fled, hiding in various locations in the Netherlands, first in Bennekom and later in Ede. After the war, she returned to Dordrecht, but a falling out occurred that was never explained to the author, and his family lost contact with the girl. Now, over half a century later, the author reconnects with her to document her story.

Gerry and Stella are an elderly couple whose 40-year marriage goes through a crisis. They decide to take a midwinter break in Amsterdam. However, this does not have much effect, and against the picturesque canals of the Dutch capital, their marriage further unravels.

The novel “The Dinner” follows two couples – two brothers and their wives – who meet for a five-course dinner at a fancy restaurant in Amsterdam to discuss how to handle a terrible crime committed by their 15-year-old sons. As the dinner and the novel progress, the nature of the crime is gradually revealed. While one father seeks to extract a confession from the boys, partly to safeguard his own career, the other parents believe that keeping their children’s involvement in the crime hidden is the best way to protect them.

Helmer gave up his studies after the death of his twin brother to work on the family farm. Now, years later, he begrudgingly cares for his dying father, leading a lonely existence under the grey skies of North Holland, wrestling with his emotions and suppressed homosexuality. His quiet life is interrupted when his brother’s former fiancée appears, asking if her 18-year-old son can work on the farm for a while.

After a farming accident, 14-year-old Frankie Hermans is left paralysed, except for his right arm, unable to speak properly, and entirely dependent on others. However, when he befriends Joe Speedboat, an adventurous new boy in the village, everything changes. Frankie regains his zest for life, becomes a champion arm-wrestler, and falls in love with the girl PJ Eilander.

Hans grows up in a strict Reformed Protestant family in Gelderland, in the east of the Netherlands, but moves to The Hague to break away from the oppressive environment of his youth. He later returns to Gelderland, has a happy marriage, and runs his own flower-breeding business. However, over time, he becomes increasingly rigid in his own religious beliefs, to the point where his faith takes over his life and alienates him from his wife and children.

“The Ministry of Pain” tells the story of Tanja, an exile from Zagreb, who teaches “Yugoslav” literature and languages to her students, all Yugoslav exiles, barely younger than herself, at a university in Amsterdam. As the war tribunal in The Hague proceeds, Tanja and her students reflect on their memories of life in Yugoslavia, with her classes resembling group therapy sessions more than traditional university courses. Simultaneously, a romantic relationship starts to develop between Tanja and one of her students.

“In Lucia’s Eyes” is a historical novel set in 18th-century Amsterdam and northern Italy. It tells the story of Lucia, the youthful sweetheart of Giacomo Casanova. The daughter of domestic staff at a castle in Pasiano, near Venice, Lucia falls for Casanova, who deems her too young and promises to come back after six months. Before he does, she contracts smallpox, which leaves her face disfigured. Stricken by shame, she leaves home and reappears in Amsterdam as a veiled courtesan. Many years later, she encounters Casanova again—now a celebrated libertine—who fails to recognise the girl he once adored. As they resume a relationship, Lucia is torn over whether to disclose her identity and explain why she vanished from his life.