Holocaust

This was the eradication of the Jews in Nazi Germany and throughout Europe. It was accompanied by large-scale theft of Jewish property by officers in the German army, who could help themselves to the belongings of the Jews who had been deported and would be executed.

Amsterdam

This is the capital of the Netherlands, and the urban center of many of the stories. It is the artistic and intellectual hub to which people go when they want culture. People also leave there to move out to the country to start their lives together. This city is part of a dialectic by which women, typically, are either unhappy for their distance from culture, or for their distance from the country and their origins.

The painting of the girl looking out the window

This painting of Vermeer’s is the heart of the book. It moves through time and...