The German Wedding

Description

The 1950s, a gaudily decorated provincial hotel in an old-fashioned Dutch seaside resort, the evening before a wedding: with lies, misdemeanors and an oompah band all hiding in the wings, everything looks set to spin utterly, riotously out of control... When Jacob and Maria roll out the red carpet to welcome their future family members, they spare no expense. Not to be outdone, Hans - the father of the bride - has brought his sausage factory's thirty-strong oompah band, The Fleshtones, all the way from Germany to lend his daughter's wedding a little extra je ne sais quoi. It's shaping up to be the party of the century! But almost immediately the edifice begins to crumble. Ludo has caught the clap; Liza's bitchy, sex-addicted mother is lying about absolutely everything to absolutely everybody; and a shocking article in a local newspaper reveals that both Hans and Jacob are hiding very shady pasts... Will the bride wise up? Is the groom going to be able to resist Betsy, the daughter of the disgraced local Dutch Nazi party leader? Can Kati get away with cavorting with the hotel doorman? Skeletons fly out of closets with reckless abandon as The German Wedding careens toward its dramatic denouement.

Pieter Waterdrinker was born in Haarlem, Holland. He studied Russian, French and Law at the University of Amsterdam. A novelist, journalist and broadcaster, he is the Moscow correspondent for the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. He lives in Moscow.

This novel often makes you roar with laughter... Waterdrinker is a natural born storyteller who never loses his grip on his readers. * De Volkskrant * The German Wedding is a story about a 1950s wedding in a Dutch seaside resort, unrivalled in its narrative technique... An opera of malice and misunderstanding which resonates with contemporary readers. * VPRO Gids * This man can write!...Waterdrinker takes great pleasure in lovingly showing that man preys on his own kind: luckily we can find consolation in books such as this one. * Noordhollands Dagblad *