A magnet for trade and travellers from all over the world, stylish, cosmopolitan Amsterdam is a city of dreams and nightmares, of grand civic architecture and legendary beauty, but also of civil wars, bloody religious purges, and the tragedy of Anne Frank.

In this fascinating examination of the city's soul, part history, part travel guide, Geert Mak imaginatively recreates the lives of the early Amsterdammers, and traces Amsterdam's progress from waterlogged settlement to a major financial centre and thriving modern metropolis

Lovers of Amsterdam will revel in the exhaustive reconstruction of everyday life in the medieval city * Independent on Sunday *
A strong sense of irony and a lively prose style make Geert Mak's Amsterdam one of the most unusual and engaging 'city books' I have read this year * Sunday Times *
Mak's brief is... to bring Amsterdam into the modern age. This he does with wit and style. But his real achievement... is to make accessible unfussily - and unsentimentally - one of Europe's most astonishing urban success stories -- James Woodall * Financial Times *
This excellent book is more than essential -- Irvine Welsh

Geert Mak is a jounalist and historian, and one of Holland's bestselling writers; he is author of the prize-winning In Europe and An Island in Time.

Philip Blom was born in Hamburg in 1970 and now works in London as a journalist, novelist and translator.