Writersblog

Salomon Kroonenberg

Salomon Kroonenberg, Dutch writer

The Dutch programme at the International Book Fair in Beijing was cunn... >>> read more

Henk Pröpper

Henk Pröpper, Director Dutch Foundation for Literature

In two weeks’ time, the official opening of one of the largest b... >>> read more

Kai Kang

Kai Kang, Journalist China Reading Weekly

Dear Dutch publishers. The book fair is over. Perhaps you’ll now... >>> read more

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, Dutch illustrators

The days are full and long. We are incessantly bombarded with impressi... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

Arriving on the stand on the first day, I’d asked a Chinese visi... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

Big excitement today since we were finally meeting with Songyu from Fl... >>> read more

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, Dutch illustrators

It’s now the third day, and the first one with plenty of sun. Un... >>> read more

Kai Kang

Kai Kang, Journalist China Reading Weekly

What a great opportunity to learn about the Dutch literature for Chine... >>> read more

Salomon Kroonenberg

Salomon Kroonenberg, Dutch writer

A duck flies to and fro over the vast expanses of world ocean, despera... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

‘In the era of browsing, we provide reading.’ - Slogan see... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

The jewel in the crown of our collection of Arbeiderspers titles publi... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

The Chinese publishers I have met during the course of my career, the ... >>> read more

Salomon Kroonenberg

Salomon Kroonenberg, Dutch writer

I have so far never been to a book fair. Nor do I know what to imagine... >>> read more

Kai Kang

Kai Kang, Journalist China Reading Weekly

Since 2006, I began writing about the Netherlands’ performance a... >>> read more

Henk Pröpper

Henk Pröpper, Director Dutch Foundation for Literature

Now that the fair is just round the corner, this is perhaps the moment... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

The traffic in Beijing is horrendous, I’m sure the other blogger... >>> read more

Thomas Möhlmann

Thomas Möhlmann, Staff member Dutch Foundation for Literature

What an evening the poets and the approximately 200 onlookers present ... >>> read more


Hella Haasse - The Eye of the Key

Hella Haasse - The Eye of the Key

Hella Haasse’s The Eye of the Key has been hailed by Dutch literary critics as one of the best books she has ever written. It is the story of her return to her native soil, the Dutch East Indies. Herma Warner, from a Dutch family, and Dee Meijers, of Indonesian-European origin, were friends during the Second World War. A journalist asks Herma about Mila Wychinska, the name Dee Meijers took at the time of the Indonesian war of independence. It soon becomes clear that Herma has a blind spot for many of the issues of the past. Was there actually a friendship between the two girls? What really happened? A quest for the past and for knowing the other begins.

‘Somewhere in my memory all the pieces can be found that, put together, will make a conclusive image of the truth. I did not recognize them, or I did not want to see them, when they appeared in my actual life.’ The observation of her own drives and of human limitations permeates all of Haasse’s magnificent work, in which she explores the implications and boundaries of the things we take to be true.

Biography

Hella S. Haasse (1918) was born in Batavia, modern-day Jakarta. She moved to the Netherlands after secondary school and made her name three years later with Oeroeg (1948). This tale of friendship between a Dutch and an Indonesian boy gained the status of a classic in the Netherlands. Titles such as In a Dark Wood Wandering (1949), The Insiders (1957) and Mrs Bentinck or Irreconcilable in Character (1978) have been greatly enjoyed by several generations. In 1992 she published another novel about her childhood in the Dutch East Indies, the highly acclaimed The Tea Merchants.

Quotes

  • ‘A tale that has everything: drama, suspense, intrigue, infidelity, broken friendship and any number of clashes between Indonesia and Holland, between brown and white, between second generation Dutch Indonesians and mixed families.’ – NRC Handelsblad
  • ‘A novel that approaches perfection: touching, gripping, biting, informative and exciting.’ – Algemeen Dagblad