The Penguin Book of Dutch Short Stories

Forms a loose narrative - both historical and literary - of the twentieth century...watching the decades roll by in this looking-glass world, familiar yet strange, is one of the book's chief pleasures...the stories here will provoke, delight and impress. Joost Zwagerman's selection forms a fascinating guidebook to a landscape you'll surely want to wander in again.

Claire Lowden, TLS

There is a lot of northern European melancholy in the collection, though they are often tinged with wry humour...The Second World War and Dutch colonialism also cast their shadows on these stories. Unblemished comedy is in short supply. And you have to ask: is this gloominess a reflection on the Dutch temperament, or on the present selection?... An excellent book

Jonathan Gibbs, Minor Literatures

An affectionate love-letter to the Dutch short story which deserves to be cherished by all

TN2 Magazine, Trinity College Dublin

the range of stories, styles and authors means you can happily plunge in free of preconceptions and rarely find yourself disappointed. Similar anthologies can vary wildly in quality but The Penguin Book Of Dutch Short Stories keeps the bar high throughout mainly because, it seems, Zwagerman chose to include stories he admired on merit rather than making sure a list of boxes were ticked...

Charlie Connelly, New European