Holland is small, but as you might have read in previous blogs, a country of great artists as well. Let me tell you about our big three writers:  Harry Mulisch, Willem Frederik Hermans and Gerard Reve, who’s books all made an impact in not only Holland, but worldwide. Let’s start off with Harry Mulisch:

Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch was born in Haarlem on July 29, 1927.  Mulisch senior’s roots are found in  Austria and Hungary. He worked an officer in the army during World War I, when the young Harry’s parents were already divorced. His mom, Alice Swartchz, moved to Amsterdam and later on migrated to the United States. She already lived there when the young Mulisch published his first novel.

As a young kid, Mulisch went to school in Haarlem, but he wasn’t that interested in school as in science. He made his father’s house into a science lab, where he experimented, studied and collected fossils. His father’s housekeeper kept an eye on this curious mind while he stayed there.

Over the time, his passion has to make room for something else. In 1946, Mulisch got infected with the love for literary when he published his first published story, “De Kamer” (The Room). Before the publication, his knowledge about literature was limited, and only after this event he started to invest more energy in this new topic. He started reading the work of our world’s greatest writers and also got inspired by plays.

In 1951 his novel  “Archibald Strohalm” (Archibald Straw) comes out. This is the story where kid Archibald fails in designing an all covering philosophy. As it turns out, this book tasted like more and became a series of novels and plays. In 1959 he writes “Het stenen bruidsbed” (The stone bridal bed).

From 1958 until 1962 Mulisch was an editor of the magazine “Podium” and in 1965 he became an editor for The Guide. He also started his own magazine in 1962, called “Randstad”.  In 1971 Mulisch gets married and his wife gives birth to two girls: Anna and Frieda.

In 1975 he publishes “Twee Vrouwen” (Two Women) and in 1977 “Oude Lucht” (Old Skies) follows. Mulisch is known for his use of motives, and complex mythological appearances and these two books are famous for this type of his writing. In the same year of publishing “Oude Lucht”, he also got entitled as “Ridder in de Orde van Oranje Nassau” (Knight in the order of the Oranje Nassau), which turns into the status of officer in 1992.

In the meantime, in 1982, he writes his most famous and successful book ever: “De Aanslag” (The Attack). The book is seen as a book about war, although the events of the Second World War only take up a small part of this book. De Aanslag is about Anton Steenwijk, who is looking for the reason behind an attack that took place.

 In 1992, Mulisch turns 65 and also published one of his most famous books “De ontdekking van de hemel” (The discovery of heaven). The book is praised by all the book reviewers and brings all of the themes that always inspired Mulisch together. In 1998 “De Procedure’ (The Procedure) comes out and gets praised once again. His oeuvre receives the Libris Literatuur Prijs in 1999 and the AKO Literatuurprijs follows in 2000 for his book “Siegfried, een zwarte idylle” (Siegfried, a black idyll).

The prizes do not end. In 2007 he receives an honor degree at the University of Amsterdam and he also wins the Italian Nonino-price for literature. Together with those two awards, 2007 also is the year in which “De ontdekking van de hemel” gets chosen as the best Dutch novel ever.

His work reaches people worldwide and got translated in more than 15 languages, such as English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese and Danish. But nothing tops his most famous book De Aanslag, which got translated in 36 different languages.