[1] A 2001 film adaptation by director Jeroen Krabbé features Stephen Fry and Flora Montgomery in the leading roles.

However, he cannot directly travel to Earth, so he manipulates events to bring three people together who will conceive a child with an innate desire to fulfill the mission.

He orchestrates the birth of the messenger's parents, Max Delius and Ada Brons, who meet in the aftermath of World War II.

In a review of the German translation, Der Spiegel called The Discovery of Heaven a masterpiece that successfully captured the plight of the post-War generation in Europe, that "drags along its parents' crimes suffering for life".

[2] In the Netherlands, the novel's publication led critics to compare Mulisch with Thomas Mann and Robert Musil;[2] a review in Trouw called it the work of a virtuoso, "amusing, yet also touching and exciting".

[3] A 1997 New York Times review was less favorable, praising the book for its "novelistic bravura", but criticizing the "labyrinthine middle section" that "slows it nearly to a halt".

Mulisch allowed his novel be adapted for film on condition that the English comedian Stephen Fry play Onno Quist.

[5] Krabbé did not follow the book closely and removed some of the longer pieces, especially the friendship between Max and Onno and the youth of Quinten.