![]() ![]() Then, of course, the Germans invade and occupy Belgium. Though we did not have quite the same reverence for the British royals that Louis' relatives have for their Belgian equivalents. Obviously I found nothing there that related to my own experience of growing up in Belfast during the Troubles at all. The first third or so is set in the years leading up to the war our protagonist (who veers between third-person "Louis" and first-person "ik", sometimes several times on the same page) attends a school run by nuns carrying forth the mission of educating reluctant Catholic kids in a divided society on the verge of horrendous conflict, where he hangs out with a small group of friends with shared odd literary interests. I very much enjoyed the start of the book, and it was enough to keep me going to the end. It took me almost a month, though as you will have noticed, I managed to read one or two other books along the way as well. ![]() I read it in the original Dutch, and at 715 pages I think that is the longest book I have ever read in a language other than English. NwhyteThis is another of those classic Belgian novels, a largely autobiographical account of a boy growing up in rural Flanders in the years just before, during and after the Second World War. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |