by Hans Keilson
First published 2010
Wim and Marie take in Nico, a Jewish man fleeing Nazi persecution in occupied Holland. They create a hidden life for him in their home, navigating the daily anxieties of resistance under German rule. When Nico falls ill with pneumonia and dies, the couple faces an impossible dilemma: how to dispose of his body without exposing their underground activities to the authorities. Their predicament reveals the absurd and tragic contradictions of wartime existence, where ordinary people must make extraordinary moral choices. Keilson transforms this crisis into a study of human behavior under extreme pressure, examining how fear, compassion, and survival instincts collide. The story captures both the nobility and the comic futility of small acts of defiance against overwhelming evil. Through Wim and Marie's struggle, Keilson illuminates the psychological toll of resistance and the strange normalcy that people create even in the most abnormal circumstances.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, ordinary-people-in-extraordinary-circumstances
Setting: Holland, Nazi-Occupied
Period: World War II
135 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Content warnings: death, war