Novels set in the Netherlands

[HousePlans]

Can anyone recommend a good read that's set in the Netherlands, please?

Midnight Blue. I can't remember who wrote it but I really enjoyed it!

Tulip Fever
The Miniaturist

Tracy Chevalier's The Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Brilliant, will take a look at those. Thank you all.

I've just read the sequel to the Miniaturist, called The Muse, by Jessie Burton. Both are worth reading.

I recall some pivotal scenes in The Goldfinch being set in Amsterdam

If you want to get serious you could look at The Evenings by Gerard Reve (in translation). It's set in post war Amsterdam - it's pretty grim but very atmospheric.

A Dutch writer won the International Booker a few years ago. It's got lots of plaudits but I've not read it: The Discomfort of Evening.

Otherwise, Books and Bao usuLly has some interesting recommendations.

It's non fiction, but The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es is an amazing read about a girl in Netherlands in the war.

The Miniaturist and it's sequel House of Fortune.

Another vote for "The Cut Out Girl".

The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch

I would also recommend the Jessie Burton ones others have already mentioned.

The Words in my Hand by Guinevere Glasfurd.. Set in 17th century Amsterdam. Similar in style to The Minaturist .

Tamar by Mal Peet. Its very good.

Marvellous. Thanks everyone. Lots for me to look at.

Diary of Anne Frank?

I read this in Dutch and it is grim. Unpleasantly obsessed with a young girl’s sensuality, and relentlessly bleak. It’s been years since I disliked a book that much!

Yeah, I don't fancy the story myself but it is very well regarded so worth mentioning.

That's Dutch literary tradition, as miserable and uncomfortable as possible so that you know it's literature. Cutsey books are for foreigners and children

This made me 😁 I'm currently halfway through this year's Dutch shortlistee for the Int. Booker prize, What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma: the fractured reminiscences of a woman who feels 'left behind' by her twin's death by suicide. Not sure I'd call it a 'good read' (though it's very readable) and though nominally set in the Netherlands, so far I think it could have been set in any developed city that isn't New York - the WTC Twin Towers are a recurring motif.

OP if you're open to non-fiction, there is the wonderful Thunderclap: a Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming, about Dutch Golden Age painting among other things.

This bio-sci-fi book is partly set in the Netherlands:
In Ascension

Ha! I'm laughing at the grim Dutch literary tradition!

The other Dutch book I've read in translation has some sad moments but is basically uplifting and funny. It became famous partly because it was written under a pseudonym. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen: books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Secret_Diary_of_Hendrik_Groen.html?id=ypfUDAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

Sorry, I got that wrong, the sequel is House of Fortune.
I also agree that The Cut Out Girl, though not fictional, is well worth reading, with a strong narrative.

A novella by Jane Stephenson in her collection 'Several Deceptions' about a pair of aristocratic Dutch twins attending an elite law school, one of whom enters into a strange, sadistic relationship with a charismatic professor. (The entire collection is wonderful, too.)

Thunderclap, as mentioned by previous poster is excellent if you like non fic.

Anne Frank Remembered by Miep Gies (might also be called A Small Light) is very moving.