Zinc

Title: Zinc

Author: David van Reybrouck

Binding: Hardcover

EAN: 9789403105604

Condition: Good

Please note: Below is a general description of how we classify our condition types. If you would like a more precise picture or have specific questions, please send us a message and we will be happy to look into it for you.

Condition descriptions:
- As New: Hardly any signs of use, almost as new.
- Good: May show minor signs of use, such as some discoloration or a name on the endpapers, but generally no underlining or notes in the text.
- Fair: Book in fair condition. May show signs of use, such as discoloration, reading creases in spine, underlinings, notes, light soiling at edges, dog-ears, or a crooked spine.
- New: Book is new.

Description:
The 2016 Book Week essay by award-winning author David Van Reybrouck was sold out in the Netherlands within days. Now available in a beautiful trade edition.

There sits Emil, an old man of 42, frozen, under a blanket, coughing. He had had five nationalities, and he had not even moved.

For more than a century, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany had a common neighbour: Neutral Moresnet, a completely forgotten mini-state that now belongs to German-speaking Belgium but from 1816 to 1919 had its own flag, its own government, its own gendarmerie (one policeman), its own postage stamp (valid for two weeks) and its own national anthem (in Esperanto, no less). It was 3.5 km2 in size. There was zinc, distilleries, cabarets, brothels, smugglers, philanthropists and forests.

In his Boekenweekessay Zink, David Van Reybrouck tells the remarkable story of this forgotten country, based on the improbable fate of one resident. More than an accident of history, it raises the question of what great history does to ordinary people.