The Assault

January 1945: After the shot that kills Fake Ploeg, neighbors move the body from in front of the Steenwijks' house to a position in front of the Steenwijks' door. The act unleashes chaos as rumors spread and the family next door becomes entangled in the events. Anton's family is killed and their house is set on fire, scattering Anton into the night. The moment marks the beginning of Anton's long struggle to understand what happened that night.

Anton spends the night in a dark police station cell in Heemstede, overwhelmed by fear and confusion. An unseen young woman prisoner offers him quiet comfort in the bleak hours after the violence. The scene plants the seeds of memory that will echo throughout his life, even as he does not yet know what to make of it.

As Nazi authorities transport him toward Amsterdam, a German soldier dies trying to protect Anton during an air attack. The peril underscores how fragile his safety remains in the chaos of occupied Europe. After the convoy, he is placed in the care of an aunt and uncle in Amsterdam.

The first postwar return to Haarlem brings Anton to a party and a visit to his old neighbors, the Beumers. He confronts the monument erected to honor his parents and the others who died that night, confronting the visible scar of the past. The trip marks a moment of public memory in a personal history.

A few years after his 1952 visit, Anton encounters Fake Ploeg's son and they compare their divergent paths. Anton, the orphan who built a medical career, faces the son of a collaborator who survived in a different role. The conversation probes the unfairness and complexity of guilt, punishment, and memory.

In the ensuing decades, Anton trains and practices as an anesthesiologist, shaping his professional identity. He marries twice and has one child with each wife, building a personal life that exists alongside his unsettled memories. His recollections remain fragmented, and he learns mainly through chance encounters rather than deliberate pursuit of the truth.

At the funeral of an older man connected to his father-in-law, old resistance members debate current politics and the pace of justice. Anton overhears a recount of a resistance action that points to Ploeg's assassination, deepening the mystery. He shares his knowledge with Cor Takes, whose memory of the night is incomplete.

During the gathering, Anton learns more about the likely identity of the unnamed woman who comforted him in the police cell. The revelation adds a human hook to the night’s events, but many details remain unresolved. The moment underscores how memory is partial and unreliable.

As Anton approaches grandfatherhood, a neighbor explains why Ploeg’s body was moved toward the Steenwijks’ house rather than away, revealing a motive rooted in what the neighbor knew that night. The explanation reframes the night’s moral calculus but stops short of complete closure. The memory persists, shaping how he sees his family and history.

The narrative places the night within a broader postwar context—the emergence of the Cold War, anti-establishment Provo movements, and a large anti-nuclear demonstration. These social currents frame how Dutch society confronts its wartime past. The backdrop colors the characters' choices and the meaning of memory.

Across the decades, Anton wrestles with memories he cannot fully reconstruct and with motives others may have hidden. He weighs actions and consequences, and the delicate boundary between intention and accident. The novel makes memory itself a central protagonist, always partial and evolving.