The Assault (original title in Dutch: De Aanslag) is a 1982 novel by Dutch author Harry Mulisch about the Second World War. It deals with the consequences for the lone survivor of a Nazi retaliation on an innocent family after a collaborator named Fake Ploeg is found killed outside their home.
The novel takes readers on the journey through the main character, Anton's, life. Anton struggles through the book to accept his traumatic memories from th...
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The Assault (original title in Dutch: De Aanslag) is a 1982 novel by Dutch author Harry Mulisch about the Second World War. It deals with the consequences for the lone survivor of a Nazi retaliation on an innocent family after a collaborator named Fake Ploeg is found killed outside their home.
The novel takes readers on the journey through the main character, Anton's, life. Anton struggles through the book to accept his traumatic memories from the book. In the beginning Anton's way of dealing with his tragic past is by suppressing all his memories of them, and that night. However just as he begins to forget, fate steps in, and challenges him to unearth what really happened all those years ago. Slowly, as he pieces together what happened that night, he begins to face and accept his past as a part of him. The theme of the novel is the development of the past into the present, and heading into the yet to be determined future as is shown in the prologue by a man walking backwards to push...
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