Nine Open Arms

In this Dutch import, a family of nine--hapless dreamer and cigar-maker father, tough grandmother, four almost-grown-up sons, and three younger daughters--moves into the titular house and tries to figure out its mysteries. While the setting is specific (the Dutch province of Limburg in the 1930s), the whole thing feels more like a folktale. This is a strange, somber, and oddly compelling narrative.

It takes a while to realize that the main character in this Dutch import is a building, the eponymous Nine Open Arms, a rundown, back-to-front, peculiar brick house situated beyond the cemetery "where names came to an end." The story opens when a family of nine--hapless dreamer and cigar-maker father, tough grandmother, four almost-grownup sons, and three younger daughters--moves into this house and tries to figure out its mysteries, including the tombstone in the cellar, the forbidden room, and Oompah Hatsi, the homeless man who moves into the hedge. While the setting is specific (the Dutch province of Limburg in the 1930s), the whole thing feels more like a folktale, with a folktale's harshness. (The bully girl at school, Fat Tonnie, is said to have bashed a dog to death with a hammer.) Halfway into the tale, we travel back to the 1860s to a doomed love story between a villager and a young woman of the Traveler people, and we start to figure out the origins of the steeped-in-sadness of Nine Open Arms. Then back to the main narrative, where kindness, courage, and truth-telling redeem the tragic past. Up to a point. This is a strange, somber, and oddly compelling narrative, a different combination of flavors than we would find in a book originally published in North America. sarah ellis