HOME View All Genre

Book

Audiobook

GENRES 🌙 Dark

The Ascent - Stefan Hertmans & David McKay

By Stefan Hertmans & David McKay

Release Date: 2023-08-29

Genre: Historical Fiction

(0 ratings)
Read Download
In this revealing and poignant story, Stefan Hertmans uncovers haunting details about the previous owner of his house and the crime he committed as a member of the Nazi police.

In 1979 Stefan Hertmans became obsessed with a rundown townhouse in Ghent. The previous owners were mentioned only in passing during the acquisition, and it wasn’t until the new millennium, long after he had sold the house, that he came across a memoir by the owner’s son Adriaan Verhulst, a distinguished history professor and a former teacher of Hertmans’, which revealed that his father was a former SS officer.
      Hertmans finds he is profoundly haunted by images of the family as ghostly presences in the rooms he had once known so well, he begins a journey of discovery—not to tell the story of Adriaan’s father, but rather the story of the house and the people who lived in it and passed through it. Archives, interviews with relatives and personal documents help him imagine the world of this house as they reveal not only a marital drama, but also a connection between past visitors to the house and important figures in the culture and politics of Flanders now.
      A stunning and immersive reimagining of a family in a historical moment of great upheaval confirms Hertmans’ always brilliant melding of fiction and nonfiction.

The Ascent - Stefan Hertmans & David McKay

By Stefan Hertmans & David McKay

Release Date: 2023-08-29

Genre: Historical Fiction

(0 ratings)
Read Download
In this revealing and poignant story, Stefan Hertmans uncovers haunting details about the previous owner of his house and the crime he committed as a member of the Nazi police.

In 1979 Stefan Hertmans became obsessed with a rundown townhouse in Ghent. The previous owners were mentioned only in passing during the acquisition, and it wasn’t until the new millennium, long after he had sold the house, that he came across a memoir by the owner’s son Adriaan Verhulst, a distinguished history professor and a former teacher of Hertmans’, which revealed that his father was a former SS officer.
      Hertmans finds he is profoundly haunted by images of the family as ghostly presences in the rooms he had once known so well, he begins a journey of discovery—not to tell the story of Adriaan’s father, but rather the story of the house and the people who lived in it and passed through it. Archives, interviews with relatives and personal documents help him imagine the world of this house as they reveal not only a marital drama, but also a connection between past visitors to the house and important figures in the culture and politics of Flanders now.
      A stunning and immersive reimagining of a family in a historical moment of great upheaval confirms Hertmans’ always brilliant melding of fiction and nonfiction.

More by Stefan Hertmans & David McKay

War and Turpentine

The Convert

The Ascent

TiranĂ­a del tiempo

Une ascension

Obraćenica

Die Suche nach der Gegenwart

Slikar i rat

Wejƛcie

Vzestup

Guerre et Térébenthine

L'ascesa

Guerra e trementina

Uspon

La straniera

Dius

Le coeur converti

Guerra y trementina

Der Aufgang

Wojna i terpentyna

Poétique du silence

Konvertitka

Entre villes

A fordult szĂ­v

Sous un ciel d’airain

Guerra e Terebintina

Dius

Um Coração Convertido

Related Articles