Bericht Uit Het Hiernamaals, Simon Vestdijk
Finished on April 23, 2025
Collection of messages from the afterlife, in which the messenger describes the afterlife in purely empirical-scientific terms. It is described as a place where the soul floats through a so-called «space», which however cannot be perceived, because the only thing left of the persons in this «space» are their thoughts, with which they can communicate with each other. This existence is explained by the messenger as a «trouble». The messenger also speaks of the disappearance of extinguished souls, possibly because they cannot cope with the aforementioned «trouble». At the end, there is talk of an impending catastrophe, indicating that the afterlife as our protagonist knows it will likely cease to exist and he will have to die a second death, as has likely happened to others before him. Very special book, unfortunately never translated into English.
Grip, Stephan Enter
Finished on January 27, 2025
Phenomenal book, which immediately became one of my favorite books ever. It is about four former mountaineering friends who decide to meet again after decades of absence, although the meeting never takes place in the book. The book consists of the journeys to the meeting, four chapters each written from the perspective of the four friends. The main themes are the passing of time and the changes that people go through because of the passing of time. Unfortunately, it has not yet been translated into English.