Travel to one of the most dynamic cities in the world in the company of its finest writers. The stories in this volume will take you on a personal odyssey through the city's rich past to its dynamic present. Arranged by the areas of Amsterdam they illuminate, these stories offer up a rich literary banquet to the traveler who wishes to experience the character and soul of this great city. Join better-known Dutch writers such as Harry Mulisch and Cees Nooteboom, along with those whose writing appears in English here for the first time, as they lead you along the canals, through the neighborhoods, and from the past to the present in this rare collection of twentieth-century Dutch literature. Contributors include Cees Nooteboom, J.J. Voskuil, Simon Carmiggelt, J. Bernlef, Martin Bril, Remco Campert, Marion Bloem, Maarten 't Hart, Geert Mak, Hermine Landvreugd, Gerrit Komrij, Bas Heijne, Lizzy Sara May, Gerard Reve, Marga Minco, Harry Mulisch, and Hafid Bouazza. Manfred Wolf has translated five volumes of Dutch poetry and written frequently about Dutch literature for such publications as World Literature Today and Commentary . He is Professor of English at San Francisco State University.