The Great Longing: A Novel - Hardcover

Moring, Marcel

3.3

353 ratings by Goodreads

9780060172435: The Great Longing: A Novel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060172436 ISBN 13: 9780060172435

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1995

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

A journey of self-discovery finds Sam van Dijk searching for the answers behind his memory loss after the violent death of his parents and seeking grounding from two equally troubled siblings

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover:

“All that’s left is the memory, and the memory’s not enough, the memory is one great longing.”

Twins Sam and Lisa and their older brother, Raph, are orphaned when their parents die in a car crash. Dispersed to various foster homes, they lose touch, re-uniting when the twins reach adulthood.

On the surface, all three have taken very different paths in life: Sam, sad and solitary, works as an archivist; Lisa is a painter, desperately unable to love her husband; and Raph, wild and resilient, always seeks the limit. What unite this strange, restless trio is their ever-present sense of what they lost when their parents died – a connectedness with their fellow men and the innocent, unconditional love of the family. Attempts to satiate their ‘great longing’ take all three on a journey back to the lost Paradise of childhood, where memory has become myth and hidden truths await discovery ...

A bestselling novel and a masterpiece of European fiction, 'The Great Longing' has taken Holland by storm. Critically acclaimed and winner of the prestigious AKO prize, it has already established itself as one of the country’s great works of literature.

“Tremendous evocative power. I’ve been walking around for days now, reading and re-reading passages and wondering what it is about 'The Great Longing' that makes me feel so restless.”
ANTHONY MERTENS, 'De Groene Amsterdammer'

“A painfully beautiful book.”
UTRECHTS NIEUWSBLAD

About the Author:

Holland’s most famous author, Marcel M�ring, was born in 1957 in Enschede, and he now lives in Rotterdam. He decided to become a writer at the age of thirteen.

After studying Dutch literature for two years and writing and directing plays, M�ring published his aclaimed first novel, ‘Mendels Erfenis’ in 1990. His second, ‘Het Grote Verlangen’ (‘The Great Longing’) won the AKO Prize, the Dutch equivalent of the Booker Prize, and sold over 100,000 copies in the Netherlands alone.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.