• An Untouched House
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Archipelago Books

An Untouched House

An Untouched House

by W.F. Hermans, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer

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Madness abounds in the waning months of World War II, until a weary Dutch Partisan chances upon a luxurious, intact estate in an abandoned spa town. For a time, clean linens and running water replace unremitting bloodshed as the defining features of the nameless narrator’s life; then the Germans retake the village. When they reach his new front door, the Partisan quickly accepts that he must resort to any means to keep the war out. With blunt yet transfixing prose, Hermans confronts his readers with the violent absurdity of war.

Additional Book Information

Series: Archipelago Books
ISBN: 9781939810069
Pages: 120
Publication Date:

Praise

The front lines may be the peak of insanity, blossoms of concussive explosions flowing from the whining stem of the shell’s path, but one shucked soldier finds some time to play house behind the lines, fending off billeted officers and aggrieved owners, dreaming that this bubble of calm will remain after the war finally passes. But he finds that you can’t hide from war if you carry it inside you.
—Paul Theriault, Brookline Booksmith

Hermans is an old fave. This one is like Simenon distilled down to his nastiest essential salts. More, please.
—Jeremy Davies

Although An Untouched House is brief, it is worth pacing oneself and absorbing its remarkable density. Hermans is the architect of a masterful story – concise but expansive in vision . . . a lucid, exhilarating account.
—Peyton Harvey, Zyzzyva

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