Read our sample translation of 23 Seconds

About the book

A young writer named Anne returns to Amsterdam’s Red Light District twenty years after the notorious ‘hammer murder’ of her mother, a window prostitute born and raised in the city. She’s been given an advance by her publisher to write about her extraordinary childhood. Anne’s search for the roots of her existence raises more questions about her mother’s murder than it answers. Determined to unravel the mystery, she descends deeper and deeper into the dark world of her past. When she tries to contact the murderer, the consequences are explosive. The mystery’s unravelling is cleverly interwoven with the riveting story of a photographer named Hayo, Anne’s young love before he died.