The Discovery of Heaven
 |
|
| Author | Harry Mulisch |
|---|---|
| Original title | De ontdekking van de hemel |
| Translator | Paul Vincent |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Language | Dutch |
| Publisher |
De Bezige Bij (Dutch) Penguin Books (English) |
|
Publication date
|
October 1992 |
|
Published in English
|
1996 |
| Media type | Book |
| Pages | 905 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 34411842 |
| 839.3/1364 20 | |
| LC Class | PT5860.M85 O5713 1996 |
| Preceded by | The Last Call |
| Followed by | The Procedure |
The Discovery of Heaven is a 1992 novel by Dutch writer Harry Mulisch. It is considered Mulisch's masterpiece and was voted best book in the Dutch language in a 2007 poll among the readers of NRC Handelsblad.
A 2001 film adaptation by director Jeroen Krabbé features Stephen Fry and Flora Montgomery in the leading roles.
An angel-like being is ordered to return to Heaven the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, given to Moses by God, which symbolise in the book the link between Heaven and Earth. The divine being, however, cannot himself travel to Earth, and on several occasions in the book resorts to influencing events, being in effect a deliberate personification of deus ex machina. He affects the personal lives of three people (two men and one woman) in order that a child will be conceived. This child would then have an innate desire to seek out and return the Tablets.
The book consists of four parts (dubbed "The Beginning of the Beginning", "The End of the Beginning", "The Beginning of the End", and "The End of the End"). In between these four parts, the angel-like being discusses "The Plan" with his superior, who is supposedly an archangel.
The book begins with the angel reporting to his superior that 'the job is done', and beginning to recount the events. He explains that after seventy years' work and planning, he has created a messenger to return the Tablets, and how, in order for the messenger to be conceived, he first needed to allow the birth of the messenger's parents. He then explains how the First and Second World War were instrumental in this. The messenger's father, Max Delius, was born of a Jewish mother and a German officer in 1933. The messenger's mother, Ada Brons, is born in 1946 to Dutch parents, who also meet in WWII. A third man, Onno Quist, is born into a renowned Conservative political family, also in the year 1933.
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