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In Papieren vrienden, Jan Konst goes in search of the meaning of life, and he does so in a highly original way. For once it is not the theologians or philosophers he consults, but his paper friends: all kinds of characters from eight hundred years of Dutch literature.

Some of these paper friends Konst perhaps knows better than his flesh-and-blood friends. They have accompanied him, and all of us, sometimes for decades. People like Onno Quist from Harry Mulisch’s The Discovery of Heaven and Marie Deniet from Connie Palmen’s The Laws.

They ask the big questions about meaning and being, because, like us, they are subject to the condition humaine. How do they deal with unhappiness, disappointments, illness and grief – the solid components of every life? What can we learn from them? How should we resist adversity, how do we keep our spirits up?

These paper friends have a lot to say about that. Anyone who reads their stories carefully, as Jan Konst does, will see that their insights are also of great significance for us.

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