From Publishers Weekly
Eminent Dutch novelist Nooteboom (_All Soul's Day_) weaves an imaginative tale of redemption from the intersecting lives of travelers. After surviving a gang rape in SΓ£o Paulo, a young, affluent Brazilian woman, Alma, takes off for Australia with her best friend, Almut: the two plan to train as masseuses. Nooteboom then cuts to an embittered middle-aged critic, Erik Zondag, who is cast out of his home in Amsterdam by his fed-up younger girlfriend and sent to an Alpine spa in order to dry out and become a different man. The first part of the novel tracks the two Brazilians as they travel though Australia with hope of stopping at the legendary Aboriginal Sickness Dreaming Place. Their Australian adventures take a turn involving the Angel Project, a multisite piece of participatory art in Perth. For the second part, Eric endures a punishingly ascetic stay at the Alpine spa, where he recognizes his masseuse. Framed by masterful reflections on misunderstandings in life and literature, Nooteboom's short work, at once delicate and chiseled, achieves a dreamlike suspension of time and place. (Oct.)
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From
"The world is a never-ending cross reference," claims one of Nooteboom's narrators in a previous work. Here, a chance encounter between a melancholic young Brazilian woman, Alma, and a rut-stuck middle-aged Dutch literary critic, Erik, in Perth, Australia, provides the ibid for an exploration of longing for spirituality and connection. Alma, obsessed with angels, has come to Australia to "exorcise a demon" (she was gang-raped in a SΓ£o Paulo favela); Erik has been lured by a free ticket to a literary conference. Both thoughtful and playful, this metafiction sometimes feels more like an essay than a novel, even spelling out the conclusion. But while Nooteboom's observations about those who want to make themselves whole by borrowing wisdom from other cultures are canny, some readers may wish he'd explore another issue, too: Alma is raped by a "black cloud" (after finding the favela's danger "irresistible") and then seeks solace in the arms of an inscrutable Aborigineβyet the significance of an earthy longing for the Other is ignored in favor of sublime desires. Fans of J. M. Coetzee should try Nooteboom, a major writer in Holland. Graff, Keir