The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

by Dominic Smith

Ellie suspects he doesn’t mean to sound arrogant or bossy; it’s just the curse of a certain nonnative English speaker, a kind of mechanical efficiency that comes off as rude.

even during her time in Holland she found it hard to find locals who would speak Dutch with her. The running joke with her colleagues was that Dutch taxi drivers—often driving black Mercedes in dark suits, like embassy chauffeurs—spoke better English than the Australian expats.