The only person he can speak to – in French – is a Spaniard who has been away from Spain for eight years and who was a Communist and had therefore fled during the Civil War. He had landed up with a partisan group, though he does not speak a word of their language. He had escaped and then been recaptured and sent to Strellwitz, escaped again, caught again and then had then jumped out of a train.
He had been captured by the Germans and sentenced to three years hard labour. He left the Netherlands in 1940 and it is now 1944. Our unnamed narrator is a Dutch man fighting with Soviet partisans. This long story is definitely in the War Is Hell genre so if you do not like wanton cruelty, random deaths and the like, you may not enjoy this work or, indeed, Hermans’ work as a whole. Home » Netherlands » Willem Frederik Hermans » Het behouden huis (An Untouched House) Willem Frederik Hermans: Het behouden huis (An Untouched House)
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