The Discovery of Heaven

by Harry Mulisch, Paul Vincent (Translator)

Overview

"Exhilerating, magnificent, dangerous." — The Times Literary Supplement (London)

One of the great novels of the Twentieth Century, described by John Updike as a meditation on "the persistence of trauma, the rapacity of eros, the fragility of our orderly schemes"

On a cold night in Holland two men meet and change each other's lives forever. Max Delius - a hedonistic, yet brilliant astronomer who loves fast cars, nice clothes and beautiful women - picks up Onno Quist, a cerebral chaotic philologist who cannot bear the ordinariness of everyday life. Despite their differences, they fast become great friends.
And when they learn they were conceived on the same day, it is clear that their meeting is no coincidence. As the pair fall into and out of love with the same woman - Ada - so their lives become further intertwined. For all three are on a mysterious journey destined to shape human history.
The Discovery of Heaven is internationally recognized as a masterpiece. Rich in philosophical, psychological, historical and theological enquiry, it is an extravagant, bold and satisfying novel of ideas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140239379
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/01/1997
Pages:	736
Sales rank:	668,413
Product dimensions:	5.21(w) x 7.97(h) x 1.64(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Harry Mulisch (1927-2010): born to a Jewish mother whose family died in the concentration camps and an Austrian father who was jailed after the war for collaborating with the Nazis, HARRY MULISCH is one of Holland's most acclaimed writers. He is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, nonfiction, commentary, plays, and poetry, many of them having as their subject the Second World War. The Assault has been translated into more than two dozen languages and was made into an Academy Award–winning film in 1986. Mulisch died in 2010.

Paul Vincent lives in London and translated Harry Mulisch's previous two novels.

Editorial Reviews

"One of the most entertaining and profound philosophical novels ever written." -- The Washington Post

"Harry Mulisch is dazzlingly good at the portrayal of intellectual friendship, a kind of relationship too rarely seen in modern fiction. In Max and Onno, he has created, in the manner of Thomas Mann, two fully distinct male characters, each of whom has a cornucopia of alert, offbeat observations to throw off in conversation. " — The New York Times

"Exhilerating, magnificent, dangerous." — The Times Literary Supplement (London)

"Mulisch's bid for a masterpiece works commandingly, on every level. Could be one of the best novels of the last 20 years." — Kirkus Reviews

"A huge and wonderfully entertaining novel of ideas...that will keep you reading and thinking for a good long run of days and nights." — Chicago Tribune

"Anyone who reads The Discovery of Heaven will come away enlightened, challenged, and entertained." -- The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

In a new novel bulging with metaphysical speculation, Dutch author Mulisch masterfully intersperses mathematics, biology, linguistics, numerology, philosophy and theology. When two strangers meet on a cold night in The Hague, Onno Quist, a linguist and politician from a well-to-do family, and Max Delius, an astronomer, have no idea that their relationship will change the course of human existence. Their meeting, however, like many of the momentous events that occur in the novel, is no accident of chance. It is the product of the careful manipulations by two angels acting at the request of God, who, upset that people are on the verge of mapping the genetic code and thus deciphering the secret of creation, desires to wash His hands of His creation. Disgusted with human behavior, the two angels plot to retrieve the tablets bearing the Ten Commandments, thus breaking God's covenant with humanity. The two angels surmise that the 17th-century philosopher of science Francis Bacon made a pact with the devil for which all of mankind must atonebecause scientific knowledge quickly superseded humanity's belief in God. The angels contrive a series of complex events involving Onno, Max and Ada Brons, a bright and beautiful cellist, in order to create Quinten, the boy who will be their unwitting instrument for fulfilling God's doomsday plan. As Onno, Max and Quinten think and work through their lives, they arrive, ultimately, at the impossible and forbiddenthe discovery of heaven by means of science rather than faith. God has never been so unforgiving. Hope remains, however, that the next fallen angel might be more benevolent than the last. Mulisch, author of the critically hailed Last Call and The Assault, has created a masterpiece that not only brings his characters closer to discovering heaven but also prods them nearer to knowing themselves. Remarkably, he escalates his plot to ever more complex levels of thought without diminishing the strong, suspenseful (and, in Vincent's fluid translation, often funny) narrative thrust. This is novel-writing on a gloriously grand, hubristic scale. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Two conniving angels discuss how they will create an agent to find and return the original Ten Commandment tablets to heaven. They bring about the meeting of two brilliant men: astronomer Max Delius, son of a Nazi father and a Jewish mother, and eccentric linguist Onno Quist, son of a former Dutch prime minister. Immediate soul mates, they let only beautiful cellist Ada Brons into their friendship. The left-wing, free-thinking, exhilarating spirit of the 1960s culminates in a trip Ada, Max, and Onno take to Cuba, where Ada conceives a child whose father could be either Max or Onno. Renowned Dutch author Mulisch (Last Call, Viking, 1991) uses this framework to create an exceptional novel of ideas. Wonderful characters, flashes of humor, and brilliant insights make this long novel well worth reading.Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio

Library Journal