De opgang

de Stefan Hertmans

"In the summer of 1979, a house in Patershol in Ghent caught the attention of Stefan Hertmans. The wisteria hung dusty, but the scent hit him deeply and took him back to childhood. He bought the property on a whim. It was only after he had sold it twenty years later that he was confronted with what had happened during the war. Astonishing was the discovery that the former occupant was an SS. "It is incomprehensible," writes Hertmans, "that everything I could have known at the time, or at least suspected, could have passed me so thoughtlessly." Slowly the man he wants to learn to understand comes into the picture, as well as his Dutch, pacifist wife and their children, the eldest son of whom would become a prominent Flemish intellectual. Hertmans speaks with relatives, consults archives, finds intimate documents. In his memory he walks through all the rooms he has lived in for so long. In 'De opgang' the reader comes chillingly close to a political drama, which was also a marriage drama. Once again, Hertmans appears to be linked to a story that touches on important historical events. Once again it brilliantly sets his imagination and pen in motion." -- Back cover, translated from Dutch.