This is a merry little list – and I'd second Steinglass's recommendation of "The Discovery of Heaven." His summary barely suggests the embarrassment of riches in this hefty, cosmically comic fiction written the grand metaphysical style of Hermann Hesse's "Glass Bead Game" or Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus" (minus the sturm und drang). Speaking of Germans, no one should miss Mulisch's dark, powerful novel "The Assault," set in the dark days at the end of World War II. (The movie version won an Oscar for best foreign language film.) It's unforgettable.

Ditto for Baruma's book on Theo Van Gogh. Anyone puzzled about how a democratic society might hope to come to terms with its own Islamic fundamentalists will come away with a richer understanding of the issues involved. "Murder in Amsterdam" is the best thing I've read on this torturous topic.

For readers who enjoy some mystery at the end of the day, I'll toss in another author: A. C. Baantjer. His enjoyable series of Detective DeKok policiers (written in the 1980s, also set in Amsterdam) is now available in English, thanks to the small publisher Speck Press. DeKok is a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, except he's grumpier. His acerbic adventures are perfect for late-night reading, and will send you off to sleep with a guileless grin.

no mention of janwillem van de wetering's fantastic zen police procedurals set in 70's amsterdam -- i love this series -- don't miss this guy

Also a great writer , (and chef) Nicholas Freeing's mysteries are set in Amsterdam. They include delicious details and a likeable detective and his wife. They are mostly out of prints, and there are many of them, so a good time is had searching for them. His books on Food and Cooking are also a great read.

in my opinion is and will always be "Amsterdam" by Geert Mak. Highly recommended.

I found the entire series in a used book store and have been reading them sequentially. His stories are addictive.

The term is usually Big Three (Grote Drie) not Four, which means one of them must go (Wolkers, of course). It also doesn't include Cees Nooteboom, whose best-known book in English is the slim fiction "In the Dutch Mountains," but who is one of the finest postwar travel writers, & who would probably be as well known in this genre as Theroux or Chatwin if he wrote in English...

Surprising that this list doesn't include *the* great Dutch novel, Multatuli's "Max Havelaar" -- a longtime Penguin classic -- about some of those same things (the colonial experience in Indonesia) that Couperus touched on too (his most famous novel is translated as "Old People and the Things that Pass").

In one short sentence, Steinglass manages to show the brutal indifference to human suffering that is the prevailing characteristic of the self-styled progressives. A Dutch film maker was stabbed to death by a young devotee of the religion of peace, and we are told that the issue brings to light Muslim militance, sure, but also the "Islamophobia" of the Dutch. While he was at it, our fine young Muslim murderer left us all a note (stuck between Theo Van Gogh's ribs) telling us exactly what was in store for the rest of us, if and when he and his buddies get their way. And Steinglass, who I must say comes across as quite bloodthirsty in his hideous equation of Dutch society and Muslim militancy, lets us know that, after all, there are two sides to all this. The one who gets killed, and the one who does the killing, I guess. BTW, I have heard that Muslim children are going to school with the murderer's picture on their t-shirts. Very even-handed of them.

I haven't read Buruma's book yet but if "Dutch Islamophobia" is somehow different from US Islamophobia, it might be because the Dutch have an instinctive aversion to (clerical) authority and marching in social lockstep. Their concerns about Islam are not so much tied to fears for national security but rather to a fear of losing a culture based on tolerance, blunt openness and sexual equality, among others things. America should be so worried.