Böcker av Auguste van der Molenschot

This is a novel with many themes. It is about Brabant, a country that is presently half in the Netherlands and the other half in Belgium. It is also the story of a little Brabanter boy, born the year Adolf Hitler came to power. The boy wants a good life and that is not so easy because the Catholic Brabanters are kept down by the Calvinist Hollanders. Many other modern themes come, such as the Second World War, the emancipation (or women but also the Catholics), the pill and its effects, secularization, wealth. Our young hero goes to Canada where he can make his dream career come true. This is also a singular love story, although it all seems to end in disaster. He then returns to the Netherlands, divorced, impoverished, disillusioned to find a new love, then losing it again and finally in a world that has changed beyond recognition. For those not familiar with Dutch history the book starts with a short introduction to the 1700 years of Brabant history.