The Hairdresser’s Son

In this appealing metafictional outing from Bakker (The Detour), an Amsterdam barber searches for the truth about his long-lost father, who supposedly died before he was born in the 1977 Tenerife Airport Disaster. Much of the narrative follows Simon’s routine at the barbershop he inherited from his father, Cornelis, who had previously taken it over from his grandfather, Jan; and his encounters with casual lovers (he’s “never had a steady boyfriend”). He considers how his life is tied to his father’s absence, feeling that if Cornelis had never made that fateful trip to the Canary Islands, he would have set out to forge his own path. Simon takes a growing interest in investigating the details of his father’s death, spurred on in part by one of his clients, a writer working on a novel about a hairdresser. Over the course of endearing quotidian scenes with Simon and his down-to-earth mother and genever-loving grandfather, Bakker draws the reader into speculation about Cornelis’s reasons for leaving Amsterdam and his fate, and the plot thickens with surprising revelations from his point of view back in 1977. It’s a stimulating effort. (Aug.)