The Trap

The protagonist of this taut novel, first published in 1966 in the Netherlands, is no saint. He's done prison time for poaching, brawls and shooting at a forest ranger. Yet he is a secret hero, a North Sea fisherman in Nazi-occupied Friesland who hides Jews and others seeking refuge in his cottage. Arrested on suspicion of working with the underground, this nameless everyman engages in a duel of wits with his interrogators. They are Dutch collaborators who tell him that, unless he confesses, his 21-year-old son, Germ, a Resistance fighter they say they've captured, will be executed. Most of the story consists of a protracted interrogation in which the fisherman, pretending to cooperate, gives out disinformation while trying to gauge whether or not his interrogator has made up the news about his son in order to trap him. Interspersed are conversations between the protagonist and his cell mate, a terrified shepherd, and flashbacks to the fisherman's abusive childhood. Van der Velde reduces the plot to bare essentials, which only accentuate the central question he raises: What gives an individual the courage and integrity to stand up to evil? The answer, for this particular everyman, lies in a healthy disrespect for all forms of authority, compassion for victims and simple human decency that seeks no reward. Marking van der Velde's first translation into English, this is a gem of a novel with universal appeal. (Feb.) FYI: The Trap is currently being made into a Dutch-language film.