NETHERLAND by Joseph O'Neill

Hans, our narrator, is a Dutchman who marries an Englishwoman, Rachel.  They leave London for her new job in New York and then move to the Chelsea Hotel with their young son Jake after 9/11 renders their apartment uninhabitable.  Much to Hans’s surprise, Rachel returns to London with Jake to live temporarily with her parents as a very long-distance trial separation.  Hans’s job as a market analyst affords him the financial means to visit them every other weekend, but his alternate weekends are lonely and depressing, until he discovers a group of immigrants who play cricket on Staten Island.  He becomes friends with cricket umpire Chuck Ramkissoon from Trinidad, who takes Hans under his wing but also uses him for some possibly shady activities, under the guise of getting him ready for his driving test.  Nonetheless, Chuck keeps Hans from wallowing in misery and introduces him to areas of the city that Hans would never have experienced otherwise.  At one point, Hans mentions that he and Chuck have nothing in common except cricket, but that seems to be enough, as one of Chuck’s many projects is to build a cricket venue that will attract TV coverage in India and the Caribbean.  We learn early on that Chuck’s body eventually will be found in a canal, probably due to foul play, but while he’s alive, he is vibrant and ambitious, in contrast with Hans’s buttoned-up persona. This novel is beautifully written and very introspective, bringing into focus Hans’s melancholy, solitary, and stoic existence in a foreign country.