Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Jeroen Olyslaegers (b. 1967) is a Flemish author and playwright. Will won four major prizes in the Netherlands and Flanders and is being translated into eight languages. He lives in Antwerp, on the Kruikstraat, where police helped the Nazis round up Jews during the Second World War.A brilliant, uncomfortable exploration of the moral compromises necessary to live alongside evil
The Times, Historical Fiction Book of the Year
I loved this book. Will is a vivid, complex, and captivating novel about the grubby moral compromises of life under occupation
Bart van Es, author of The Cut Out Girl
A masterful book, a gripping epic, necessary and gorgeously written
Stefan Hertmans, author of War and Turpentine
Constantly grapples with what the ordinary man might do when faced with a horror so huge that to resist might threaten his very survival. Olyslaegers bravely explores moral compromise, betrayal and collaboration - and throws our polarised times into sharp relief
Observer
It is Will's inner darkness that drives this book, and it lends a ferocious energy to the narration... Olyslaegers seems intent on pulling the scales from our eyes
Guardian
Will is suited to a time when people can remain apolitical only by hiding from politics
Financial Times
A violently atmospheric novel... asks the big, implicating questions about the shadowy terrain of appeasement
Daily Mail
A dark story of the dangers of herd mentality
Metro
Jeroen Olyslaegers is never judgmental, but he makes a terrifying judgement: this happened once and this could happen again... More than a meeting with history, this is a meeting with ourselves
Livres hebdo
Captivating... addictive reading, and offering a new perspective on a period of history whose disasters still sadly echo in our day and age
Thriller Books Journal
A lyrical meditation on guilt and evil
De Tijd
A gripping panorama which moves the reader from tears to laughter, one minute turning the pages avidly, the next filled with dread... Disturbing and provocative
L'Express
What do you do if evil invades your city?... Olyslaegers, a Flemish author whose grandfather was a Nazi collaborator, is masterly in probing the moral quandaries of collaboration. This is historical fiction at its best: provocative, uncomfortable and illuminating
- Antonia Senior, The Times, Historical Fiction Book of the Month
A brilliant, morally complex creation... in a fine translation... and is a compelling read
- Bart van Es, Observer, Best Books of 2019
A book that manages to cause this degree of disquiet is a classic
De Standaard (five stars)
I couldn't recommend Will more highly, and I suspect we might hear quite a bit more from Olyslaegers
Giles McDonogh
An important and confrontational book in which the past continues to resonate with the present, in a style sharp as a razor
NRC Handelsblad (five stars)
A book that asks many questions, plunging us into the streets of Nazi-occupied Antwerp and resonating with the present day
Les Inrocks
A book like a slap in the face
De Morgen
A truly epic story
Transfuge
This powerful novel proves that, despite the overwhelming amount of war literature available, valuable additions are still possible
De Volkskrant
Captivating
Télérama
Among the ocean of novels written about the Nazi occupation, Will stands out for its force and singularity... A majestic style, blending the colloquial with the lyrical
Lire
This inventive author grabbed me with his bold, appealing images and furiously paced scenes
De Groene Amsterdammer
Introduces an original, fresh perspective on a period that seems to have been written to death
Knack
Will's earthy yet lyrical language is masterly. Jeroen Olyslaegers's best novel
De Tijd
A solid blow to your fiercely beating reader's heart. Pass the word: read Jeroen Olyslaegers
- Bart Van Loo,
Without doubt one of the year's best Flemish novels
Het Nieuwsblad
THE TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
A FINANCIAL TIMES TRANSLATED FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR
__________
It is 1941, and Antwerp is in the grip of Nazi occupation. Young policeman Wilfried Wils has no intention of being a hero - but war has a way of catching up with people.
When his idealistic best friend draws him into the growing resistance movement, and an SS commander tries to force him into collaborating, Wilfried's loyalties become horribly, fatally torn. As the beatings, destruction and round-ups intensify across the city, he is forced into an act that will have consequences he could never have imagined.
A searing portrayal of a man trying to survive amid the treachery, compromises and moral darkness of occupation, Will asks what any of us would risk to fight evil.