Yael van der Wouden

I was intrigued and excited by this Booker Prize-shortlisted novel, which promised something profound and thought-provoking. For the first eight chapters, I was captivated, eager to see where the author was leading. However, by chapter nine, the tone took a sudden turn, and I felt as though I had stumbled into a clichéd bodice-ripper. I was flummoxed and seriously considered setting the book aside.

Yet, determined not to abandon it, I pressed on—and I’m glad I did. The novel ultimately redeems itself, with the author skillfully delivering on the story’s buildup. The narrative becomes truly compelling, offering a haunting portrayal of a dark period in history.

I still can’t quite understand why the author chose to include the out-of-place detail in chapter nine, which felt more suited to a cheap romance. Despite that, the rest of the novel is overwhelmingly successful. Had that chapter been rewritten, I would have easily given it five stars.… (more)

In 1961, Isabel is living alone in the family home in a rural part of the Netherlands. Both her brothers live in Amsterdam, and she travels in to join them for dinner occasionally. Her older brother, to whom ownership of the family home has passed, brings a new girlfriend to join them and Isabel takes an immediate dislike to the gauche, bleached blonde woman. That doesn't prevent her brother from installing Eve in the family home while he is traveling for business. Isabel, prickly and protective of her privacy, does not welcome this intruder and to her surprise, Eve refuses to be a meek supplicant. As they uneasily share the house, Isabel begins at last to question how the family took possession of the house in the middle of the war, and why it came fully furnished.

I have mixed feelings about this book, which is on the shortlist for the 2024 Booker Prize. It's uncommon to see a book, written by a European, address the ways that citizens of those countries benefited from the German occupation. This part of the book was very well done. What felt less authentic to me is in how the novel addressed gay and lesbian relationships. They seemed to be centered in the present day, with a modern understanding and it felt like an opportunity was lost in not handling that important aspect of the book with the same nuance and historical grounding as the rest.… (more)