THE TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARA FINANCIAL TIMES TRANSLATED FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARAN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR
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It is 1941, and Antwerp is in the grip of Nazi occupation. Young policeman Wilfried Wils has no intention of being a hero - but war has a way of catching up with people.
When his idealistic best friend draws him into the growing resistance movement, and an SS commander tries to force him into collaborating, Wilfried's loyalties become horribly, fatally torn.
As the beatings, destruction and round-ups intensify across the city, he is forced into an act that will have consequences he could never have imagined.
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'A vivid, complex, and captivating novel about the grubby moral compromises of life under occupation' Bart van Es, author of The Cut Out Girl'Masterful... A gripping epic, necessary and gorgeously written' Stefan Hertmans, author of War and Turpentine'Historical fiction at its best: provocative, uncomfortable and illuminating' The Times