The great longing

A visionary novel about desire, memory, and love, The Great Longing tells the poignant story of Sam van Dijk, a thirtyish young man who has lost all memory of his childhood up to the age of twelve, when his parents were killed in a mysterious car accident. Alienated and adrift in his life, working as a freelance archivist and living in a warehouse, Sam embarks on a journey of self-discovery through a contemporary landscape often dark and unexpectedly violent. He is alone in the world except for a twin sister, Lisa - the keeper of the family secrets, an artist whose marriage to a man she loves is in trouble - and his restless brother, Raph, a photographer. With these sibling ties as the only stable element in a narrative maelstrom, Sam gradually pieces together haunting shards of memory and retrieves the missing story of his life. In the process he discovers his own voice, and with it a longing for love and human connection. . The setting of the novel is contemporary and urban - a Dutch city with its canals and wild nightlife; the cultural references - popular music, the assassination of JFK, the moon landing - are largely American. Marcel Moring's imaginative representation of how memory works is anchored in concrete detail and event, but his prose often soars. Rich in theme and style, with remarkably evocative imagery and impressive narrative control, The Great Longing introduces to this country a gifted writer whose work has already won impressive kudos abroad.