Author Kathryn Stockett (The Help) visits the Netherlands, 16 April

Author Kathryn Stockett wil talk about her book The Help,at the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam, 16 April, 8 PM, for more details and the location, click here

The Help has sat atop the New York Times bestseller list for a full year. Its popularity is due to its richly rendered story and setting, but also its daring. Kathryn Stockett, a white southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi, has chosen to tell the story of black maids in the old South, and to write in old-fashioned dialect. Her decision defied political correctness, but it has paid off.
Some bloggers have called the book racist; others call it brave. The Huffington Post explained the success this way: “The Help is about something. That is, something real. Something that matters.” Join us for an evening with a new literary star

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town...

The Help is also released in a Dutch edition, titled: Een keukenmeidenroman