An Untouched House

Madness abounds in the waning months of World War II, until a weary Dutch Partisan chances upon a luxurious, intact estate in an abandoned spa town. For a time, clean linens and running water replace unremitting bloodshed as the defining features of the nameless narrator’s life; then the Germans retake the village. When they reach his new front door, the Partisan quickly accepts that he must resort to any means to keep the war out. With blunt yet transfixing prose, Hermans confronts his readers with the violent absurdity of war.