The Assault

Description

'Acknowledged as Holland's finest novelist' Guardian
'Mulisch is a rarity ... an instinctively psychological novelist' John Updike
With an introduction by Thomas Harding, author of The House by the Lake

In the bitter final months of the Second World War, the body of a Dutch Nazi collaborator is found on the doorstep of an ordinary family home. The repercussions are complex and terrible: the family is killed and the house burned to the ground; only the twelve-year-old son, Anton, survives. Following Anton as he reckons with this trauma through his life, The Assault is a powerful excavation of resistance and the collateral damage wrought on innocent people in times of war.

A runaway bestseller that sold 200,000 copies on first publication, this is a classic of Dutch literature from one of the greatest European writers of his time.

Reviews

'Harry Mulisch belongs to the first rank of Dutch novelists of his generation' - J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Laureate and two-time Booker Prize winner

'Mulisch is a rarity ... an instinctively psychological novelist' - John Updike, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest

'Artful in its study of postponed knowledge and nightmare' - Kirkus reviews

Author Biography: Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch (1927-2010) was a Dutch writer. He wrote more than 80 novels, plays, essays, poems, and philosophical reflections. Mulisch's works have been translated into 38 languages so far. Along with Willem Frederik Hermans and Gerard Reve, Mulisch is considered one of the "Great Three" of Dutch post-war literature.