The Darkroom of Damocles

Description

During the German occupation of Holland, tobacconist Henri Osewoudt finds himself drawn into the resistance when he is visited by the ruthless Dorbeck, who also happens to look remarkably like him. Soon Osewoudt is carrying out dangerous missions, helping British agents and killing collaborators with aplomb. But after the war, he is taken for a collaborator himself. How can he prove that he was on the right side - and how much of what he remembers is real? The Darkroom of Damocles is a razor-sharp thriller set in a world where everything is permitted, even murder. As unsettling and morally challenging today as when it was first written.

Willem Frederik Hermans (1921-1995) was one of the most prolific and versatile Dutch authors of the twentieth century. In 1977 he received the Dutch Literature Prize - the most prestigious literary prize in the Netherlands. He is considered one of the three most important authors in the Netherlands in the postwar period, along with Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve.