How far is the gulf between you and your enemy? Too wide to cross? Too far to bridge? Or too deep to heal?

All over the world, there are divides: victims and perpetrators; cops and robbers; neo-Nazis and queer communities; Hutus and Tutsis. Whether it is over class, race, sexuality, faith or power, the human race will always find a way to split and separate ourselves into different factions. Sometimes this is necessary for survival, and sometimes it is a matter of personal politics.

And yet, although the world is more divided than ever, there are exceptions. In what seems to be a miracle of forgiveness, unlikely friendships can form between the people who seem most susceptible to enmity.

In The Divide, Maurits Chabot takes us on a journalistic quest from Rwanda, along the border posts of Palestine and Israel, through an art gallery in Oslo and into the American prison system. He investigates how people can grow closer despite wars, ethnic tensions, geopolitical differences and violent actions, and seeks to answer whether there is a limit to our empathy, our understanding, and our ability to truly change.

In increasingly divisive times, we must ask ourselves: who is that person across the divide? What is their story? And how far is the distance between us?

Maurits Chabot is a Dutch author and journalist. He began his career in journalism at the age of twelve, writing for a newspaper as a sports reporter. Since then, he has studied at universities in Antwerp, Prague, Amsterdam, Paris, Leiden and Oxford. He has made documentaries for Channel 1 in The Netherlands, as well as writing for de Volkskrant for a number of years.

Content warnings: This audiobook contains detailed and graphic descriptions of real-life violence, including kidnapping, child abduction, murder, and accounts of genocide, as well as derogatory language. Listener discretion is advised; please bear this in mind when deciding how, when and where to listen.

© 2026 Maurits Chabot (P) 2026 DK Audio