Pier en oceaan

Abel Roorda's mother Dina, a girl from Amsterdam, had to confess before the church council of her strict Calvinist community because she was expecting him before her wedding. Abel spends his first years in Friesland; then the family moves south to Zeeland, where his father is appointed headmaster and becomes a hearty, embarrassing public figure. Over hundreds of pages the boy grows into a young man, discovers his body and desire, and watches his tearful mother, his classmates and the sea, while the buttoned-up Netherlands of the post-war years slowly gives way to the freedom of the sixties. He can be tender, but also mean.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

803 pages in the original

Genres

Coming of age, Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Netherlands, 1950s–1960s

First published

2012 by Augustus

Author's age

60 when first published

ISBN

9789020412857 (original)

More

Wikidata