One of the great three of the Dutch post-war authors, Harry Mulisch has written many great works, and the novella Two Women is one of his finest.
Loosely based on the myths of both Orpheus and Oedipus, Two Women centres about a divorced 35-year-old conservator and a twenty-year-old hairdresser, who meet while the first is on her break and the latter is taking an off-day, before a jeweller. The conservator, Laura, immediately falls in love with Sylvia and they start a relationship. Dating from 1975, this novel quite shocked the Netherlands and it still has a great deal of impact. Mulisch's style of writing is very unique as he plays with Laura's gender in the first few chapters - the character seems very masculine - and embroiders the two myths as well as alluding to a few great works of art, frequently referring to Jesus and being a psychological novella without even having been destined as a psychological novella. It is thoroughly enjoyable and very sad at the end, and definitely a must-read, even though it's probably quite unknown outside the Netherlands.