Description
Book SynopsisTHE TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR A FINANCIAL TIMES TRANSLATED FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR __________ 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. A searing portrayal of a man trying to survive amid the treachery, compromises and moral darkness of occupation, Will asks what any of us would risk to fight evil.
Trade Review'A brilliant, uncomfortable exploration of the moral compromises necessary to live alongside evil' - The
Times, Historical Fiction Book of the Year
'I loved this book. Will is a vivid, complex, and captivating novel about the grubby moral compromises of life under occupation' - Bart van Es, author of
The Cut Out Girl'A masterful book, a gripping epic, necessary and gorgeously written' - Stefan Hertmans, author of
War and Turpentine'Constantly grapples with what the ordinary man might do when faced with a horror so huge that to resist might threaten his very survival. Olyslaegers bravely explores moral compromise, betrayal and collaboration - and throws our polarised times into sharp relief' -
Observer'It is Will's inner darkness that drives this book, and it lends a ferocious energy to the narration... Olyslaegers seems intent on pulling the scales from our eyes' -
Guardian
