The Dutch Wife

Keith’s lackluster debut tells the stories of an SS officer in love with a married Dutch woman who’s been forced into prostitution by the Nazis in 1943, and the disappearance of a student revolutionary some 30 years later in Argentina. After being arrested in Amsterdam, beautiful Marijke de Graaf is separated from her beloved husband, Theo. After learning that Theo has been taken to Buchenwald, she is sent to work at the camp's brothel. There, she catches the eye of Karl Müller, an officer on the rise who is ambivalent about Nazi ideology. This story dovetails with that of Luciano Wagner, a student in Buenos Aires in 1977, who’s kidnapped by government officials who are trying to quash an uprising. Luciano is only tangentially involved with the movement, drawn to it mostly by his crush on his friend Fabián, but he’s nonetheless interrogated and tortured. With the help of Gabriel, a fellow prisoner, he’s later assigned a job handling top-secret files, which he tries to smuggle out. On top of the uneven writing, Keith’s characterization of Karl as a conflicted man trying to be two people is handled without nuance, as is Luciano’s strained relationship with his disapproving father. The novel’s two stories conflate in a poignant resolution, but it isn’t enough to rescue an unsuccessful narrative. (Sept.)

This review has been revised to more accurately reflect the character Marijke's experience at the concentration camp.