In W.F. Hermans’ war novel
The Darkroom of Damocles (De donkere kamer van Damocles) one of the central issues is the impossibility of ascertaining whether the protagonist was on the 'right' side or the 'wrong' side. It’s the moral issue of the Second World War in a nutshell and it makes the book as rivetting now as when it was written, a little over a decade after the war. Michael Pye describes the English translation in
The Scotsman as a ‘brilliantly worked wartime thriller’, and Paul Binding adds in his review for
The Times Literary Supplement: ‘it would be a mistake to read The Darkroom of Damocles, which was first published in 1958, as a historical account. Rather, the Occupation, with its moral reversals, its laws and shibboleths, its imposed need for disguises, untruths and assumptions of alien identity, provides the perfect setting for Hermans to exercise his disillusioned view of human nature.’
A perfect assessment, because Hermans was certainly not a writer who revelled in Dutch cosiness. His world-picture is unrelenting, harsh and merciless. Yet it does not make the reader numb nor indifferent: the cold, meaningless world of Hermans implants in us the yearning for a critical sense, for nineteenth-century courtesy and insane goodness, for razor-sharp analyses that do not bend to comply with the general mood, as Henk Pöpper wrote in
The Low Countries.
This award, which started last year in reaction to the lack of international titles on ‘best of the year’ lists, was created to bring attention to the great works of international literature being published in the United States. Criteria used in selecting these titles include the quality of the work itself, along with the quality of the translation. This is the only award in America honouring international literature that is given to the book itself. The winner will be announced at a reception on February 19th at the Melville House offices in Brooklyn, NY.
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