I wanted to present my new book today. It was published more than a week ago, but actually written much earlier. I will try to say something around it. Through the meditative study of anthroposophy, I discovered that every human being stands in the world from a certain worldview. That, of course, has a background. I won’t go into that. But it is a fact that we all look at ourselves and what happens in the world from a certain perspective. And those are twelve different directions, which are also connected with the zodiac. They are known, mostly well-known, philosophical, spiritual worldviews. For example, there is materialism, and directly opposite to that, there is spiritualism.

Now, it happened that I—this was around the turn of the century—received an impulse, actually, to try and write novels from the perspective of those twelve worldviews. Well yes, that’s not something you do from one day to the next. And now, 25 years have passed. And I’ve written eight so far.

But every time, I’ve tried to immerse myself in a certain worldview. And then it’s basically always the case that the main character, who stands in that worldview, at some point comes into contact with Johannes, who actually represents all the worldviews, who is, let me say, in the center instead of on the circumference, twelve times. Who can thus actually integrate all of them, which is ultimately the ideal. And through that encounter, a kind of relativity of the extreme standpoint arises each time.

I had now planned—this was a few years ago—to immerse myself in the worldview of idealism. And that ultimately became this book. It’s called *Hotel Corona*. And it has something to do with corona, but not very much.

Because it is mostly about the time leading up to it. But *Hotel Corona* is, I think, the only truly autobiographical point in this novel. It is a hotel-restaurant located in The Hague, on the Buitenhof. And we lived in The Hague for 18 years. We experienced a lot there. Our children grew up there, went to school there. And Jos and I—my husband and I—used to go into town once a week. And we often sat at the Buitenhof in restaurant Corona. That place has changed considerably since then. It’s no longer at all like it used to be. And the way I describe it is, of course, how it was back then. But you’re allowed to do that in a novel, because it’s fiction.

But it is still a cherished place that plays a certain role in my life. Though a very different one than the role this hotel-restaurant plays in the book. It’s simply called *Corona*. It does, of course, have something to do with it, because the whole story takes place in the time leading up to corona. And right at the beginning it still plays a small role. But what moved me above all was the immersion in idealism. It’s a girl. She of course eventually becomes a woman. And she has lofty ideals. She actually cannot live in this world of environmental problems, climate change, poverty, war. But she is brave and simply moves forward in her life. And eventually, she finds a path through certain studies and becomes a lecturer at the University in Leiden and also sits on quite a number of commissions and councils and think tanks related to her idealistic efforts.

That is the starting point, and in immersing myself in idealism—and by that I mean this kind of idealism, not the idealism of the idealists in the time of Goethe, that’s something entirely different—here, idealism really means living for a clearly defined ideal. But in immersing myself in that, I strongly asked myself: where does the path that someone chooses in life actually come from?

Look, you can say you have ideals—no war, no poverty, a healthy environment, and so on. But which path you choose to live for that, that is the question. How does that come about? And once you are an adult and you go down the path you go, how is it possible that people—now I have to be careful—based on certain ideals, which in themselves pursue the good, still end up in a current where you wonder: how is that possible? Of course, you see that a lot. And I think the only way to be aware of that is by actively engaging in self-reflection and self-knowledge. But if you just live haphazardly and live out your ideal, then it seems that you also get carried along a certain path, which becomes an increasingly strong current. And then you eventually ask yourself: is this still consistent with what that person—in this case, this girl—carried within her as impulses?

That’s what I investigated. And I also examined the influence exerted by certain societies—spiritual, political, societal. What does that do to you, to your thoughts, to your feelings, to your impulses of will? Are you even aware of that? And if not, how could you acquire that awareness?

It is a novel. It is a life story. It is a fictional life story. It is also a love story. This girl eventually finds her great love. And together they move forward, and ultimately—always in very different ways, but life as a whole actually moves toward that one point of encounter with Johannes. And that happens in this story too. And that encounter happens in such a way that the two lovers also have that encounter together. And also together—let me say—acknowledge its effect. And further develop it and make it fruitful and want to give their lives a different direction.

So on the one hand—this is true for all the novels I write—there is a philosophical, spiritual development in the story. But on the other hand, I really love human interaction. And I always try to describe that as realistically as possible. And of course, there are also always a lot of funny things in life. A lot of nice things. There’s a lot of coziness. And I certainly don’t exclude that. For example, the meetings in restaurant Corona, of which I myself have very fond memories.

I believe that with that, I have more or less said everything. I don’t know—it is of course always very difficult to retell in fifteen minutes what you really express in a novel. That simply doesn’t work. The most important thing to say about it is this: it is a novel, it is fiction. But what is not fiction, are the philosophical-spiritual lines of thought. Those are very much real. And that’s actually what it’s about. But I have them—and this is what I do in all the novels, more or less—move within the lives of two lovers.

You have to imagine that when I write such a book, it’s not the case that I know from the beginning what I’m going to write. And that I then work that out. I don’t know that at all. I only have the intuition: idealism. And the question: is it possible, in the metamorphosis of idealism in such a life process, to show what idealism is and how it is acted upon on the one hand. And how on the other hand, through self-knowledge and self-reflection, one can gain insight into what plays a role in your thinking. And of which—if you don’t engage in self-reflection—you have no idea. Because then you believe that your impulses and thoughts are always truly your own.

That’s what I hope to have made a bit clearer with this novel. And I’ll show it once more. Hotel Corona.