Secretly Inside

In the Dutch countryside the war seems far away. For most people, at least. But not for Ed, a Jew in Nazi-occupied Holland trying to find some safe sanctuary. Compelled to go into hiding in the rural province of Zeeland, he is taken in by a seemingly benevolent family of farmers. But, as Ed comes to realize, the Van 't Westeindes are not what they seem. Camiel, the son of the house, is still in mourning for his best friend, a German soldier who committed suicide the year before. And Camiel's fiery, unstable sister Mariete begins to nurse a growing unrequited passion for their young guest, just as Ed realizes his own attraction to Camiel. As time goes by, Ed is drawn into the domestic intrigues around him, and the farmhouse that had begun as his refuge slowly becomes his prison.

    Hans Warren was a prominent Dutch writer best known for his published diaries, which he kept from 1939 until he died in 2001. In addition to these revered memoirs of modern life, he was a poet, translator of Greek literature, and a novelist.
    S. J. Leinbach is a scholar and translator living in the Hague, Netherlands. His previous translations include Oek de Jong’s novel Hoekwerda’s Child.