Novel
The Assault
De aanslag
Harry Mulisch · 1982
Synopsis
January 1945, in the suburbs of Haarlem. On the evening when a notorious collaborator is shot down on his bicycle in front of the house next door, the neighbours drag the body in front of the Steenwijks' house. The Germans shoot Anton's parents and elder brother, Anton being twelve, burn the house down and take him away; he spends the night in a dark cell, comforted by a woman prisoner of whom he sees only the mouth. The following episodes find him as an adult, seeking in spite of himself what happened that night.
Context
The novel appeared in 1982 from De Bezige Bij: a prologue and five episodes dated 1945, 1952, 1956, 1966 and 1981, which gradually bring together the pieces of a single night. Philippe Noble translated it into French as early as 1984 for Calmann-Lévy, before a paperback reissue at Actes Sud, and Claire Nicolas White produced an English translation in 1985. Fons Rademakers made it into a film in 1986 that won the Oscar and the Golden Globe for best foreign-language film.
Who it is for
A short novel, of about two hundred pages, in five episodes separated by years. It can be read in French and in English.
Prizes and reception
The book that carried its author beyond the Netherlands, translated into some forty languages; nine votes in the canonical survey of 2002.