The Great Longing (1992)

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0060927399, Paperback)

When he was 12, Sam van Dijk's parents were killed in a mysterious car accident, and since then he has lost all memory of his childhood. Now in his 30s, alienated from society and adrift in life, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery -- one that takes him through the gritty, and sometimes violent landscape of a Dutch city and the tantalizing, ethereal fabric of his memory. With his restless brother and twin sister as his only links to the world of his childhood, he gradually pieces together the haunting shards of his past and retrieves the missing story of his life. In the course of a moving, emotional voyage, he solves a mystery and discovers his own voice -- and with it, a longing for love and human connection.

In a masterful translation that captures the subtle voice, wry humor, visionary power and hypnotic readability of the original, The Great Longing is a rich, evocative novel that introduces America to a gifted writer whose work has already won impressive kudos abroad.