Lit in Translation

In Search of a Name

En we noemen hem

Marjolijn van Heemstra (born 1981)

Translated by Jonathan Reeder

English editions

In English
  • In Search of a Name

    Atria Books · United States · November 2020 · Paperback · 208 pages

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As a teenager, Marjolijn vowed to give any son of hers the name of 'Bommenneef', a great-uncle hailed in family lore as a resistance hero for a bombing aimed at a collaborator who had escaped trial after the liberation. Expecting her first baby, she begins to dig into the facts, with chapter headings counting down, week by week and at last day by day, to the birth. Every answer raises fresh doubts, and she grows uneasy about what he really did in those years. Was he brave, or something much darker?

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form
Novel
Length
218 pages in the original
Genres
Autofiction, Family, War (assigned by AI)
Set in
Netherlands
First published
2017 by Das Mag
Author's age
36 when first published
ISBN

9789492478375 (original)

9781982100483 (Atria Books, United States)