'I am holding on to that summer, not just in my thoughts but with my whole body, from my numb fingers down to my toes. The summer when the river was ours, and so was the boathouse, the city, the meadows and the reeds at the water's edge. Happiness only exists when you can touch it and I held it, I'm still holding it, that summer of 1939, now, here tonight.'

Two young oarsmen are trained as a coxless pair by a mysterious German coach in the golden summer of pre-war Amsterdam. Through the pressure and rapture of physical exertion, teamwork and victory, Anton the shy outsider and calmly self-confident David, forge an intense relationship while the grim developments on the world stage remain at a great distance. But on the wintry eve of Holland's liberation, Anton stands on the bank of his beloved river and mourns a lost world: David has disappeared and the boathouse is now derelict and deserted . . .

About the Author
Paul Vincent studied at Cambridge and Amsterdam, and after teaching Dutch at the University of London for over twenty years became a full-time translator in 1989. Since then he has published a wide variety of translated poetry, non-fiction and fiction, including work by Achterberg, Claus, Couperus, Mulisch and Van den Brink. He was awarded the Vondel Prize and jointly awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize. He is Honorary Senior Lecturer in Dutch at UCL.

Reviews
'Rarely have sport and literature combined so seamlessly to produce such a small miracle of a book'. Daniel Topolski, Guardian


Awards
Short-listed for Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2002.



Book Information
ISBN 9780571209248
Author On the Water Hans van den Brink
Format Paperback
Page Count 144
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 106g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 125mm * 8mm