Venice by Cees Nooteboom (translation by Laura Watkinson)

This was a treatise on Venice - not just a travel memoir. It dealt with history, geography, philosophy and the social interactions of not just present times but also those of the past. The story of Venice, its people, the tourists, those who work for the tourists but are grudging in their appreciation of what they bring, the feeling that it is all in "their" favour and actual Venetians are being ignored. It is all there. Then you get to the actual Venice, the islands, the outer islands, the lesser known canals, the lesser known churches (my gosh there are churches and churches). I doubt I'd get anything done at all. I'll be going from one to another, because each one has its own history, its own riches of paintings, its own saint and followers. I could go on. The book was a fascinating one. On of course a fascinating subject. Sent by Yale University Press for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.