Lost Paradise - Hardcover

"Nooteboom writes beautifully. His prose is clean and precise without feeling sparse, and he manages to combine clarity with intense lyricism" (Rebecca Abrahams Guardian)

"Nooteboom has shown himself a master of ironic wisdom, but also of elated, elegiac feeling" (Ben Rogers Independent on Sunday)

"A daring, poetic, provocative, cleansing novel" (De Volkskrant)

"The Dutch grandmaster at the height of his powers" (Frankfurter Rundschau)

"A stylish, successful novel. Mysterious, rich and very re-readable" (Elsevier)

Almut and Alma, two young Brazilian women, set out from São Paulo and wind up in Australia. Alma is recovering from a traumatic attack. She has always loved the art of the Renaissance. Specifically, she is captivated by angels - the way they fly, their stillness, what they might sound like, how they are represented. But what the women share is a fascination for Australia and its ancient peoples; their ceremonies, sand drawings and body paintings.

Here, Alma begins an affair with an Aboriginal man, an artist, though he tells her that it can only last a week. He must shortly return to his people.

The women become involved with the Angel Project in Perth, where actors dressed as angels are concealed around the city for the public to track down. The angels must remain still and silent, whatever response they provoke in the viewer.

In a seemingly unconnected story, a man staying at a remote Alpine spa unexpectedly meets a woman he encountered years before and with whom he shared a single night. It was in a faraway city and she was dressed as an angel.

Lost Paradise is a tale of great charm and brilliance from one of Europe's greatest writers.