Great Book: "The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery" by Janwillem van de Wetering, a Detective Fiction Writer of "Outsider in Amsterdam"

https://www.amazon.com/Empty-Mirror-Experiences-Japanese-Monastery/dp/0312207743/

Seen by many as a contemporary classic, Janwillem van de Wetering's small and admirable memoir records the experiences of a young Dutch student―later a widely celebrated mystery writer―who spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery. 

It is the first book in a trilogy that continues with A Glimpse of Nothingness and Afterzen.

https://www.amazon.com/Outsider-Amsterdam-Cops-Janwillem-Wetering/dp/1616953004/

On a quiet street in downtown Amsterdam, a man is found hanging from the ceiling beam of his bedroom, upstairs from the new religious society he founded: a group that calls itself “Hindist” and supposedly mixes elements of various Eastern traditions. Detective-Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate what looks like a simple suicide, but they are immediately suspicious of the circumstances.

This now-classic novel, first published in 1975, introduces Janwillem van de Wetering’s lovable Amsterdam cop duo of portly, wise Gripstra and handsome, contemplative de Gier. With its unvarnished depiction of the legacy of Dutch colonialism and the darker facets of Amsterdam’s free drug culture, this excellent procedural asks the question of whether a murder may ever be justly committed.




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