Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Hans van den Broek works as an equities analyst for a large merchant bank and he's also the narrator of Joseph O'Neill's brilliant new novel, "Netherland". Although the book is about alienation, sport occupies a central place in the story. And if you're wondering why The Netherlands are the favourites to win Euro2008, here's a clue courtesy of Hans van den Broek. Looking back at a youth spent at Houdt Braef Standt, he's struck by the role of such clubs in Dutch life: "They took on scores of young boys almost as hatchlings and bestowed parental care and effort on them for years, even on those who were athletically helpless. From September through April, I played football, proudly wearing the club's black shirts and black shorts brought at the sporting goods store on Fahrenheitstraat."

Reviewing Netherland in the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani wrote of Joseph O'Neill: "He gives us Manhattan as Eliot's 'unreal city,' with crowds climbing and descending the passages and walkways of the subway system 'like Escher's tramping figures.' He gives us Manhattan as a Magritte painting, where the street looks like night, 'while the sky is day.' And he gives us Manhattan as a place where anything can happen, where the visitor might encounter anyone from Monica Lewinsky wearing a track suit and large sunglasses, to a man dressed as an angel savoring his coffee and reading a newspaper."

Netherland, the book, is a bit like The Netherlands, the team: elegant and unforgettable.