In the Dutch Mountains

A morose provincial inspector of roads in Aragon settles down to write the fable of the Snow Queen. The Netherlands has now been stretched into a vast country with Northern flatlands and hazardous Alpine ranges in the south. Kai and Lucia are circus illusionists, and when Kai is kidnapped, Lucia must rescue him from the Snow Queen's palace.

In the Dutch Mountains is an elegantly constructed story within a story, laced with the wit that characterises the work of this outstanding European writer.

“'The brilliant and original fruit of a deep (and well-read) imagination' Bernard Levin, The Times .”

'He is one of the greatest modern novelists' A. S. Byatt. A S Byatt
'A genuinely pan-European novel in both its subject and style. It has the brilliance and disconcerting logic of a dream' Jonathan Raban. Jonathan Raban
'A poet's fairy tale, elegant and beguiling' Julian Barnes. Julian Barnes
'The brilliant and original fruit of a deep (and well-read) imagination' Bernard Levin, The Times. The Times

Cees Nooteboom was born in The Hague in 1933, and now lives in Amsterdam and on the island of Minorca. He is a poet and novelist who has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards such as the Pegasus Prize and the Aristeion Prize for his novels, which include Rituals (1983), The Following Story (1994), and All Souls' Day (2001). His books of travel writing, Roads to Santiago (1997) and Roads to Berlin (2012) have become backlist classics.

In an empty classroom in Aragon, in the heat of the summer holiday, a morose provincial inspector of roads sits down at a child's desk to write a story. The fable he builds is that of the Snow Queen, set in a Netherlands now stretched into a vast country extending from the Northern flatlands to hazardous Alpine ranges in the south. In the inspector's new vision of the narrative, unfolding as he himself travels the roads of Aragon, Kai and Lucia are circus illusionists, and when Kai is kidnapped, Lucia must rescue him from the Snow Queen's palace. Curious, elegant and erudite, In the Dutch Mountains is laced with the meditative wit which characterises the work of this outstanding European writer.

A morose provincial inspector of roads in Aragon settles down to write the fable of the Snow Queen. The Netherlands has now been stretched into a vast country with Northern flatlands and hazardous Alpine ranges in the south. Kai and Lucia are circus illusionists, and when Kai is kidnapped, Lucia must rescue him from the Snow Queen's palace. In the Dutch Mountains is an elegantly constructed story within a story, laced with the wit that characterises the work of this outstanding European writer.

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