The Book of Everything

I just finished this amazing little book by Guus Kuijer, translated by John Nieuwenhuizen in a voracious single seating, and had to write about it. What an amazing reading experience. A book about God, love, a specific place and time - the Netherlands post-WWII and Nazi occupation - and yet a book about so much else.

I love the main character, Thomas. He's a nice year old living with his ultra-religious father who sometimes hits his mother and smacks Thomas with a wooden spoon - all in the name of instilling respect and keeping clear from sin. But Thomas sees things that otheres don't, and the book blends the magical with the mundane. Does he really see frogs filling the streets after his father reads about the plague from the Bible? The neighbor/benign witch Mrs. van Amersfoort mentions the frogs too- but then is she really a witch?

It's difficult to describe this short but almost-perfect little book because it is so - itself - original, unusual. It's philosophical, challenging notions of fundamentalist religious practice, about the strength of community and especially women, and ultimately about happiness and redemption. But a cathartic, inspiring, beautiful notion of redemption which involves being kind, being human, being open.

It's translated from the Dutch, and is currently being considered for the Marsh Award (shortlist to be announced shortly). Some of the most amazing books are being translated and published - more about that when the shortlist is announced.

Here are other people writing about this lovely book:
Brooklyn Arden - on designing the cover (with links to several covers)
Fairrosa's Reading Journal
The Goddess of YA Literature
Propernoun.net
Scholar's Blog

You can read the first two chapters on the Arthur Levine website.