De Aanslag

On a cold evening just before the end of World War II, in the hunger winter of 1944-1945, eight-year-old Anton Steenwijk happens to a disaster: two resistance fighters shoot a collaborator near Anton's house.

In the chaos that follows, the German occupier retaliates: Anton's house goes up in flames and his parents and brother are shot. Anton then grows up with his uncle and aunt in Amsterdam and tries literally and figuratively to distance himself from the terrible events of the time. However, those events continue to haunt him: at different times in his life he comes across people who have somehow had to deal with the attack from his childhood. Because of them he keeps thinking about that evening and slowly finds out what exactly happened. Who can he blame for the deaths of his brother and parents?

Harry Mulisch (Author)