El ojo de la cerradura | Hella S. Haasse | book new | sale

Hella S. Haasse

Edhasa | 2006

192 | 4h 31m

spanish | hardcover | new | sale

23,5cm x 14,5cm | 370gr

Herma Warner, the protagonist (or one of them) of this extraordinary novel, belongs to the last generation of Europeans who were born and educated in Batavia (today Jakarta), capital of the former colony of the Dutch Indies. Both she and her now deceased husband dedicated their lives to the history and art of their native country, and even occupy a prominent place among scholars of these subjects. The arrival of a letter from a journalist who is writing about the final days of the Dutch presence in Batavia forces her into an exercise of memory and introspection from which she will not emerge unscathed and that forces her to rethink, for example, the friendship that united her best friend with her husband. Haasse has reproduced with great sensitivity and talent the decline of an era. International critics have been unanimous in pointing out that this novel is perhaps one of the best of our time and is supported by the more than 100,000 copies sold in Holland alone.