The Foxes Come at Night

This latest collection of short stories by Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom is immensely readable and entertaining. The title itself is a phrase uttered in the penultimate story 'Paula II' and perhaps aptly conjures up the slightly mystical air that surrounds much of this collection.

Each of the stories has their own characters and contexts, but love is a unifying thread linking the stories to one another. In each story Nooteboom makes observations on nostalgia and lost love, such as in 'Gondolas' and 'Paula', as well as the nature of human relationships, such as 'Thunderstorm', and 'Heinz'.

Since the 1960s, Nooteboom has spent much of his time in Menorca and his fondness for the landscape and the culture is clear in each of the stories. Translator Ina Rilke retains carefully selected smatterings of Spanish, French and Italian which help permeate the text with a real sense of the Mediterranean.

Nooteboom was awarded the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Dutch Literature Prize) in 2009 is one of today’s most successful Dutch writers today. As introductions to Nooteboom and Dutch writing go, this is certainly a good place to start.