It is the winter of 1945, the last dark days of the war in occupied Holland. A Nazi collaborator, infamous for his cruelty, is assassinated as he rides home on his bicycle. The Germans retaliate by slaughtering an innocent family; only the youngest son, twelve-year-old Anton Steenwijk survives.
-New York Times Book Review
This is a fictionalized account of life under Nazi occupation by Dutch author Harry Mulisch. It focuses on the life of Anton Steenwijk with the story staged in five sections. Each section represents a different point in Anton’s life as the mystery of the slaughter that night unfolds despite Anton's efforts to avoid contemplating his family’s fate. This is a thriller and detective novel of sorts illustrating the lingering effects of the Second World War on the Dutch population. I found it difficult to put down with every chapter a peeling-back of the onion revealing more of the truth.
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