From the author of the hit The Evenings - two classic novellas that are considered among Gerard Reve's best workYoung Elmer longs to make friends and tries to control the world around him by forming secret clubs, of which he is always the president. When he invites Werther to become a member, a game of attraction and repulsion begins. What follows is a psychological masterpiece; Reve brilliantly conjures up a child's whole world, full of oppression and
enchantment.
During the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, a boy watches as the family of one of his friends slowly loses everything and is then taken away. This is a deceptively simple story imbued with subtle horror.
These two classic novellas, from the giant of post-war Dutch literature Gerard Reve, have all of the uncanny atmosphere and the incisive, dark wit of
The Evenings.
Two novellas considered among "The Evenings" author Reve's best work. "Werther Nieland" takes on the oppression and enchantment of childhood. "The Fall Of The Boslowitz Family" presents a family's downfall through the eyes of a friend of one of the children.
"Profoundly unsettling . . . haunt[s] the mind for long afterwards."
— The Sunday Times, A Book of the Year"These two posthumously published novellas by the Dutch writer Gerard Reve, skilfully translated by Sam Garrett, show he was capable of enormous and often unsettling power." —
Observer"In a distinctive voice that captures childish incomprehension while still conveying what is missed by the still immature mind, the two works collected in Childhood are dark and even unpleasant, but both strong and impressive."
— Complete Review"Enthralling… tales of the joys and pains of life that linger in the mind."
— Financial Times "Expertly translated." —
The National "[H]umorous yet wrenching. . . Reve paints a devastating, terrifying portrait of a pivotal era. Together, these two novellas showcase the author’s excellent range."
— Publishers Weekly"Sam Garrett’s precise and convincing translations ... capture the consistently anxious, suggestive, and haunting tone that runs through
The Evenings like a live wire—one that, after seventy years, is still electrifying. The narrators of
The Fall of the Boslowits Family and
Werther Nieland, too, are persuasively rendered in the matter-of-fact and dreamlike tones of the originals."
— Philip Huff, New York Review of Books"I certainly can’t find enough good things to say about
Childhood… wonderfully evocative... Excellently translated by Sam Garrett, this is a gem of a book and highly recommended."
— Shiny New Books"An incredibly compelling depiction of wartime… beautiful cover design." —
Pendora MagazineOne of first five Books to Look Out For in November
— Life in Books (blog)
"In a distinctive voice that captures childish incomprehension while still conveying what is missed by the still immature mind, the two works collected in
Childhood are dark and even unpleasant, but both strong and impressive." —
Asymptote Journal "Reve has a gift for contorting innocence into something sinister… beautifully artworked… an excellent Christmas present for the discerning literature lovers in your life." —
Hits the Fan (blog)
Praise for
The Evenings -
• "A masterpiece... What can I say that will put this book where it belongs, in readers' hands and minds?... Reve keeps the reader breathless right through to the grand finale - Tim Parks,
Guardian • "A masterwork of comic pathos... one of the finest studies of youthful malaise ever written... Should cause many readers to revise their opinions of
The Catcher in the Rye. In all fairness to Salinger,
The Evenings is so much better - Eileen Battersby, Irish Times
• "Like BS Johnson and Kafka wandering the crepuscular streets of 1940s Amsterdam together - in a good way" Alex Preston,
Observer Books of the Year 2016
• "The funniest, most exhilarating novel about boredom ever written. If The Evenings had appeared in English in the 1950s, it would have become every bit as much a classic as On the Road and The Catcher in the Rye." Herman Koch, author of
The Dinner 
