Claire Nicolas White Books

It is the winter of 1945, the last dark days of World War II in occupied Holland. A Nazi collaborator, infamous for his cruelty, is assassinated as he rides home on his bicycle. The Germans retaliate by burning down the home of an innocent family; only twelve-year-old Anton survives. Based on actual events, The Assault traces the complex repercussions of this horrific incident on Anton's life. Determined to forget, he opts for a carefully normal existence: a prudent marriage, a successful career, and colorless passivity. But the past keeps breaking through, in relentless memories and in chance encounters with others who were involved in the assassination and its aftermath, until Anton finally learns what really happened that night in 1945—and why.

Adriaan van Dis masterfully narrates the story of a Dutch man grappling with his life's losses and their impact on his family. The death of his half-sister stirs memories of his father, a Dutch soldier who endured three years in a Japanese concentration camp and passed away when the narrator was just 11. As he delves into his family's complex history, he discovers that his memories of his father conflict with those of others. The narrative deftly explores themes like sibling relationships, child abuse, war, and repressed memories, showcasing the quality of van Dis's writing and the skill of translator Claire Nicolas White. The unnamed narrator, a child of refugees from Dutch Indonesia, feels his family's marginalization within mainstream Dutch society. As an adult, he faces the disintegration of his family: his sister Ada's death leaves her husband struggling with mental health issues and a son lost in adolescence. Another sister, Jana, who moved to Canada, falls ill, prompting a third sister, Saskia, to unearth buried memories of their family's internment during the war. This revelation forces the narrator to confront his own memories of a harsh father who entered the family after his mother's first husband vanished. Van Dis skillfully illustrates how wartime traumas persist in collective memory, yet the narrative remains overwhelmingly somber, with few moments of fulfillment and a shadowy presence of the narrator's girlfri