Pier and ocean

In Pier en Oceaan Oek de Jong describes the history of Abel Roorda, his parents and grandparents and the great change that the Netherlands underwent in the period between the Hunger Winter of 1944 and the arrival of great prosperity in the sixties. The novel is set in Amsterdam and in the Frisian and Zeeland countryside, at that time still the 'deep province'. The moving wedding scenes of Abel's father and mother show love in a bygone era.
Pier and Ocean is the novel of Dutch water: from motionless peat pools to the sea that rushes through the groynes on the Zeeland beaches. Abel Roorda searches for the water, just like his father and grandfather. Pier and Ocean is the novel of great desire.
Oek de Jong (1952) is the author of essays, stories and successful novels such as Opwaaiende zomerjurken, Cirkel in het gras and Hokwerda's kind, which was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize and the Golden Owl. Half a million copies of his work were sold and it was translated into nine languages.