What books to take for your summer holiday

Summer House with a Swimming Pool by Herman Koch

Not to be too on the nose, but the book by famed Dutch writer Herman Koch is the perfect book for your beach bag. It brings together all of Koch’s best: unlikeable characters, an unreliable narrator, a page-turning plot and the complicated relationships between parents and children. Plus, it’s literally set during a summer holiday.

Death on a Tiny Scale by Julie Broussely

The book follows the bumbling Tony Solano, a technical writer in London, as he travels abroad to close down the office he’s inherited from an unknown party. He hires a temporary assistant to help with the administration, as the Brit doesn’t speak a word of Dutch and is now faced with a lease, case files and an inadvertently adopted cat. If you liked it, a second in the series has already been published and author Julie Broussely, a Brit who relocated to the Netherlands, is underway with the third.

The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse

Want some romance with your pina colada? The Ghost Ship starts in the gallows, ends in the gallows and in between has swashbuckling lady pirates, forbidden romance and 16th century Amsterdam. Author Kate Mosse, widely known for her archaeological fiction novel Labyrinth, is the author of more than 10 historical fiction books.

You can read the book review here.

Bearer of Bad News by Elisabeth Dini

Going to the mountains instead of to the beach? Follow the adventures of mediocre hairdresser Lucy Rey, who just stumbled across the perfect wanted ad that will free her from a job she hates and a cheating boyfriend. Or is there more to this post that has turned up on her social media feed? The book follows Rey from a miserable life in Las Vegas on an unexpected journey to the Italian mountains, where she’s been offered a job that seems too good to be true and turns out to be much more complicated and personal than she ever expected.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

If you are going to insist on something that will impress those passing by your cabana, The Goldfinch is the way to go. Donna Tartt, of The Secret History fame, partially sets her third novel in the Netherlands and the titular painting is a Dutch classic that (in real life) hangs in the Mauritshuis. The book follows 13-year old Theo Dekker as he survives a terrorist attack, steals the priceless art work and ends up in a hotel room in Amsterdam more than a decade later.

You can read the book review here.

The Diary Keepers by Nina Siegal

If you are one of those people who wants to learn something while you’re on holiday, author Nina Siegal dived into more than 2,000 personal diaries kept by the Dutch during World War II, combining excerpts to create a compelling day-by-day narrative of the Holocaust in the Netherlands. The book splices together a vivid account, sometimes presenting differing views of the same event, of a near-daily record of the war.

You can read the book review here.