On the Water [Hardcover]

H. M. van den Brink (Author), Paul Vincent (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2001

In the golden Amsterdam summer of 1939 on a crystal river in Holland, two young oarsmen train with a rather mysterious German coach. Anton, a shy teenager from a lower-class family, is paired with David, self-assured and affluent, and suddenly into Anton's drab life there is the river, boats, woods, the flash of sunlight on the copper oarlocks, and his strong, silent, almost amorous understanding of David. All summer, a quiet obsession and magical bond forms between them as the intensity of their training and competitions increases. Yet up ahead, the war looms, and the menace of tragedy to come is a nearly silent record whose faint music plays through strenuous training sessions and majestic afternoons on the water. "Brilliantly written," applauds Denmark's major newspaper, Politiken."Your heart literally beats with these two boys as they struggle their way to their goal." But the goal was not to be, and on the wintry eve of Holland's liberation five years later, Anton stands on the banks of his beloved river and remembers the majestic summer he spent with David. The story is told with the past and present flipping back and forth like oars, from the prewar summer on the water in 1939 to the same city five years later, stripped of life by the war. Now the boathouse is derelict and deserted, and the river reflects only bombers roaring across the sky from England to Nazi Germany. David has long since disappeared, and the starving city is a cruel, shadowy reminder of what once was. Spare, lyrical, and affecting, On the Water has been published in seven countries to critical acclaim and was nominated for several prestigious awards. Its unforgettably eloquent voice moves as smoothly and easily as the very water from which it grew.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rowing is a sport in which the athletes on a given team are so tightly intertwined that, during optimal performance, total synchronization occurs. The mental bond that exists between good rowers is a powerful one, and van den Brink's tight, precise novel, set in 1939 as two young men undergo rigorous crew training on a river in Holland, offers a beautiful example of one such union. The book's narrator is Anton, a reserved teenager whose father works in the town's train depot. Anton's working-class parents do not understand or fully support his commitment to the sport, but nonetheless he throws himself into an arduous routine of rowing, running and lifting weights all in an effort to cement his relationship with David, his two-man craft's other rower. Van den Brink presents David as Anton's antithesis: self-assured and affluent. David is completely at ease with the sport's highbrow, country club culture, and although the author does not provide much character detail, it is plain there is a sort of hierarchy in the boat, with David as leader and Anton as disciple, obsessively striving to please. Van den Brink shuttles between intimate descriptions of the duo's grueling practice sessions and races, and Anton's reminiscences many years later when he revisits the abandoned boathouse. This is a sensitively written and finely tuned work.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Dutch

Product Details

• Hardcover: 134 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (July 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802116922
• ISBN-13: 978-0802116925
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,898,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The magic of superlative writing, September 12, 2001

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On the Water (Hardcover)

When an author can create a completely absorbing novel, peopled with finely tuned characters that stir us with tension and competition and longing, a novel that uses as its base a sport that few readers know enough about to connect, then that author has displayed credentials of an impressive talent. ON THE WATER spends alomst every page in the preparation, practice and execution of a two man crew boat. He gradually pulls us into that boat with an understanding of the rules of the game and the rigors of the men who row. Then, subtly and with great tenderness he unveils his two young men of polar diferences and weaves a story of the power of sporting competion and the greater power of finding a soulmate. This bonding between lower class gentile Anton and upper class Jew David is engineered by a German Doctor in 1939. This beautiful story of an exploration of place and love is set in the last summer before Hitler destroys Europe. We are left to guess the fate of David while we discover the solitary wandering Anton who tells the story five years later along the banks of the river where they spent the most beautiful time of their lives. This novel gleams with magical poetry and introduces an author (and translator) who seems destined to find an important role in the 21st Century of literature. Read this book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful, very Dutch book, January 10, 2004

By 

Linda Oskam "dutch-traveller" (Amsterdam Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the Water (Paperback)

Anton lives in a new neighbourhood near the Amstel river in Amsterdam in the 1930's. From his early childhood onwards, the river attracts him and when he is about 14 years' old he becomes a member of the rowing club on the other side of the Amstel. Anton is an outsider: the other member are from higher social classes, his father works in the public transport branch. He is also an outsider in other aspects: he observes the others and doubts himself.

But then one day the eccentric Dr. Schneiderhahn chooses Anton and David for the coxless two. In Anton's view David is his very antipole: he is self-confident and outgoing. Slowly but surely the two boys become a perfect team. In the summer of 1939 they start competition rowing and they win one race after another. It becomes more and more apparent that they have a chance to participate in the 1940 Olympics in Finland. At the end of the year they promise each other to go on as a team in the next year.

The book is written as a oppressive retrospective of Anton who finds himself on the pier of the derelict rowing club in 1944. the reader knows what has happened between 1939 and 1944 and the typically Jewish name David strongly suggests that history has not been kind to him. A beautiful book in sensitive prose.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful, very Dutch book, March 15, 2002

By 

Linda Oskam "dutch-traveller" (Amsterdam Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the Water (Hardcover)

Anton lives in a new neighbourhood near the Amstel river in Amsterdam in the 1930's. From his early childhood onwards, the river attracts him and when he is about 14 years' old he becomes a member of the rowing club on the other side of the Amstel. Anton is an outsider: the other member are from higher social classes, his father works in the public transport branch. He is also an outsider in other aspects: he observes the others and doubts himself.

But then one day the eccentric Dr. Schneiderhahn chooses anton and David for the coxless two. In Anton's view David is his very antipole: he is self-confident and outgoing. Slowly but surely the two boys become a perfect team. In the summer of 1939 they start competition rowing and they win one race after another. It becomes more and more apparent that they have a chance to participate in the 1940 Olympics in Finland. At the end of the year they promise each other to go on as a team in the next year.

The book is written as a oppressive retrospective of Anton who finds himself on the pier of the derelict rowing club in 1944. the reader knows what has happened between 1939 and 1944 and the typically Jewish name David strongly suggests that history has not been kind to him. A beautiful book in sensitive prose.