The Discovery of Heaven

Rating:
Summary: a philosophical joyride
Review: This is one of the best books I have read in years. The way it starts off, it reminds you of "it's a wonderful life", because there is these 2 guys in Heaven discussing how they manipulate our fate here on earth. As we leave heaven and enter the story, the characters of Max and Onno immediately involve you. They could not be more different and better matched at the same time and we breathlessly follow them through the beginnings of their friendship and their incredible discussions about life, music, history, philosophy, the universe. This is one of the greatest qualities of this book: in the discussions of Onno and Max, as well as in other casual settings in the book, Mulisch displays an impressive knowledge of history, philosophy, art, and music without ever sacrificing tension in his storyline. The reader just gobbles up this information without ever having the feeling of having been lectured. The story takes some very incredible turns that will make your jaw drop and read even faster, and when it is all over, you will be sorry you finished it so fast and immediately vow to read it again because you ran too fast through all those passages of sheer beauty in thought and writing.