In A Dark Wood

Description

A magnificently ambitious and enthralling novel, part Dante part Joyce, that confirms Moring's place as one of the most significant European novelists now at work. The story takes place on a single night, a Friday night in Assen, a small town in the north of the Netherlands. The annual Dutch TT motor races are being held in this town of 40,000 inhabitants, and during the races the town swells to three times its size. Our hero is a man who wanders at night through this overcrowded town, tens of thousands of people, most of them drunk and clad in leather. He hasn't been to Assen in a long while and the reason he has returned tonight is to find his first love. He loses sight of her at six o'clock that night, only to find her again twelve hours later. Dis is a very funny take on Dante's Inferno, and loosely mimics its structure. So, when our hero finds his lost love again, after twelve hours of wandering, he has traversed the nine circles of Hell, met his past and the town's sinners, and is convinced that not only is he, or has been, in Hell, but that the wrong people are sent there.

Holland's most famous and bestselling author. In A Dark Wood is his fifth novel.

from the reviews of In Babylon: 'It's been a while since a Continental star of fiction shone over here in the Kundera or Eco style. Moring stakes a strong claim to that role with this quite magnificent performance. Rich, Dickensian storytelling, warm and wise humour, a sweeping sense of history -- a world-class performance from the new Dutch master.' Independent 'Immensely rewarding, instantly readable yet full of imagery, myth and magic.' Good Book Guide 'In Babylon is that rarest of things: a truly intelligent novel with a terrific story at its heart.' Amazon 'A fat, rich novel, stuffed with story, bulging with plot. Read it once then read it again.' The Times from the reviews of THE DREAM ROOM: With a winning lightness of touch, Moring pinpoints that cusp of adolescence when a child begins to wake up to what he is, feeling "the first nudge in the back that later becomes the rhythm of life itself, grown-up life", and to apprehend the multi-layered pasts that have made his parents what they are. The Dream Room effortlessly weaves the freshness of a child's perspective with the wisdom of recollection.' Guardian 'An astonishing book. Elegant and mesmerising. Moring at his tender, funny best.' The Times 'A poignant, mysteriously powerful novel.' Daily Telegraph 'Very impressive -- light, airy and deliciously understated.' Time Out