HOGERE MACHTEN (HIGHER POWERS)

In the 1930s, James Welmoed meets Elizabeth van Elzenburg. He is an inscrutable, socially ambitious civil servant. She is an exuberant, adventurous and ferociously clever aspiring writer. They have nothing in common – except that they can't stop thinking about each other. What follows is a passionate affair that spans decades, while the world changes rapidly around them. From the Dutch East Indies to London during the Blitz, from The Hague to revolutionary Cairo: the two lovers experience adoration and separation, despair and success, love and betrayal. Higher Powers is an effortlessly compelling love story about an affair as passionate as it is complicated.

'With ingenious, fast-shifting and deftly plotted storytelling, De Vries rigs up a story that at times reminds one of zeitgeist star Ian McEwan and spy plotter John le Carré. [...] His bouncy cleverness touches everything.' - NRC Handelsblad ★★★★

'A Novel with a capital N. Joost de Vries showcases everything he is capable of as a writer in his whirlwind historical novel ‘Higher Powers’. [...] Unputdownable. [...] What bravado, what brilliance' - Het Parool

'Momentum, humour, fluency, rich language, an ingeniously nonchalant narrative style: 'Higher Powers' has everything that makes De Vries stand out from his contemporaries.' - Humo ★★★★

'His best yet (...) An effortless flair characterises De Vries’ prose. He is an assured storyteller, so consummately in control that he can permit himself all kinds of liberties. Quickfire, tennis-match dialogue, abrupt segues and associative leaps, lists, jokes, letters, transcriptions of radio interviews, and – of course – a handful of aphorisms.'- de Volkskrant