Hoffman’s Hunger by Leon De Winter Translated from Dutch by Arnold and Erica Pomerans

This book describes turmoil on many fronts. Felix Hoffman, a Dutch Ambassador finds himself in Prague just before the Velvet Revolution of 1980s, his final diplomatic posting. In Kafka’s haunted city Hoffman spends his insomniac nights studying Spinoza and revisiting the traumas of his life. Hoffman ruminates over his childhood past as a Holocaust survivor, escalating estrangement from his wife due to many indiscressions and the double tragedy of loosing his twin daughters. His hunger for truth and understandingis both physical and emotional . The book is very engaging and fast read and is full of interesting allegories and symbolisms. Hoffman, like Prague are both at crossroards. His life of the past 50 years, as the history of Europe, is full of turmoil