Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Assault

by Harry Mulisch, Claire Nicolas White (Translator)

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 2,633 ratings · 117 reviews

A novel that probes moral devastation following a Nazi retaliation in a Dutch town. The Assault has been translated and published to great critical acclaim throughout Europe and in the United States.

It is the winter of 1945, the last dark days of the ware in occupied Holland. A Nazi collaborator, infamous for his cruelty, is assassinated as he rides on his bicycle. The Ger...more

Paperback, 185 pages

Published March 12th 1986 by Pantheon (first published 1982)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch

De donkere kamer van Damokles by Willem Frederik Hermans

The best Dutch literature

3rd out of 187 books — 155 voters

The Luck of the Weissensteiners by Christoph Fischer

Good Books Concerning the Holocaust

4th out of 18 books — 12 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jan 15, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: lincoln-park-group, favorites, fiction, read-and-reread, european-lit

The Assault by Harry Mulisch is one of the best novels I have read, in fact it is certainly one of the finest examples of European postwar fiction. Mulisch focuses on the persistence of memory in his protagonist, Anton Steenwijk. Five episodes from Anton Steenwijk's life are described in this novel, five stations of his life: from 1945, 1952, 1956, 1966, and 1981. It is the first that is the most significant, describing the assault of the novel's title. It is his memory of this assault, the mass...more

6 likes · like · see review

Oct 26, 2011 Julia Boechat Machado rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: dutch-literature, 1980s, historical-fiction, tingle-of-the-spine, books-i-own

Mulisch, que dizia ser a Segunda Guerra Mundial, que tinha pai austríaco e mãe judia, que sobreviveu ao inverno da fome e às deportações pelo status do pai de colaboracionista, mas cuja avó materna morreu na câmara de gás, consegue transmitir questões sutis de todas as guerras, de todos os atentados.
A família de Anton Steenwijk foi massacrada, junto com outros reféns, em retaliação pelo assassinato do líder da Polícia Nazista em Haarlem, Fake Ploeg. Anton foi poupado porque tinha doze anos, e a...more Mulisch, que dizia ser a Segunda Guerra Mundial, que tinha pai austríaco e mãe judia, que sobreviveu ao inverno da fome e às deportações pelo status do pai de colaboracionista, mas cuja avó materna morreu na câmara de gás, consegue transmitir questões sutis de todas as guerras, de todos os atentados.
A família de Anton Steenwijk foi massacrada, junto com outros reféns, em retaliação pelo assassinato do líder da Polícia Nazista em Haarlem, Fake Ploeg. Anton foi poupado porque tinha doze anos, e a polícia não soube o que fazer com ele. A atitude que ele adota em relação à tragédia parece passiva, como freqüentemente ocorre com pessoas que sofreram grandes tragédias. Ele não retorna a Haarlem por anos. Ele nunca procura saber os detalhes de como sua família foi morta. Ele não pensa sobre a mulher com quem se encontrou na cela de prisão naquela noite no Haarlem, e esquece o que ela contou. Mas ele é confrontado com o incidente diversas vezes em sua vida.
Enquanto cresce, vai para a faculdade de medicina, torna-se um anestesista, casa-se duas vezes e vê o crescimento de dois filhos, Anton se encontra com o filho de Fake Ploeg, um ex-colega de escola com o qual ele vivenciou um momento marcante, e que crê que seu pai foi tão vítima quanto à família de Anton; com o militante da Resistência que matou Ploeg, traidor e torturador, apesar de saber que haveria uma retaliação; com a vizinha que mudou o corpo de Ploeg para a frente da casa dos Steenwijk por um estranho motivo.
Esses encontros são também um retrato da Holanda pós-guerra, porque se passam em manifestações anticomunismo, em meio as notícias da Invasão da Hungria em 56, em bares que tocam as músicas dos Beatles, em meio a uma manifestação contra as armas nucleares.
A cada vez, ele se depara com questões profundas sobre culpa e responsabilidade. Cada um é culpado apenas pelas ações que cometeu? Alguém além dos soldados alemães pode ser considerado culpado da matança? Ou inocente? E ainda: a vida e o mundo valem a pena, se toda a felicidade que exisitu não pode compensar as injustiças e a dor de uma só pessoa?
(less)

like · see review

Oct 29, 2011 Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011books, favorites

Assigned to me in my freshman seminar at The College of William & Mary (in 1998!) by my favorite professor, David Holmes, I'm embarrassed it has taken me this long to get around to reading. This is a phenomenal, beautiful, gripping book. Even given your smidgeon of standard translated-dialogue clunkiness, the psychology, the descriptions, and the behavior of the characters came through with stunning -- and heartbreaking -- clarity.

Simply beautiful to read, and impossible to put down in spite...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 15, 2008 Kitty-Wu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Harleem, Holanda, 1945. Frente a la casa de Steenwijk aparece el cadáver del jefe de la policía local, un reconocido colaboracionista con las Fuerzas de Ocupación alemanas. La más brutal represalia no se hace esperar. En pocos minutos, Anton Steenwijk, de doce años, ve cómo su mundo se derrumba, su casa desaparece pasto de las llamas mientras, unos metros más allá, sus padres y su hermano mayor son fusilados. Decidido a olvidar, Anton opta por una existencia perfectamente normal y, con la ayuda...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 15, 2008 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Things are not always as they seem, and each person's perceptions of reality are limited by circumstances. In this masterful and intriguing novel, the protagonist's perception of a traumatic event is altered over time by accidental encounters with other witnesses to the same event. The reader also learns how the event and individual perceptions thereof shape the destinies of those involved. The work poses a moral question, both to the characters and to the reader, which has far-reaching implicat...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 14, 2012 Gabi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kurz vor Ende des zweiten Weltkriegs wird in den Niederlanden ein mit den Faschisten kollaborierender Polizist von Widerstandskämpfern erschossen - das titlegebende Attentat. Aus Angst vor Repressalien schleppen die Bewohner des Hauses, vor dem er zufällig verblutet, die Leiche vor das Haus der Nachbarn. Dort wohnt Anton, der zu diesem Zeitpunkt zwölfjährige Protagonist. Als Vergeltungsschlag wird Antons Haus von den Faschisten niedergebrannt, seine Eltern und sein Bruder werden liquidiert.

Der...more

like · see review

Mar 18, 2012 William Clemens rated it 3 of 5 stars

The main character's parents are murdered by German forces after a man is shot down on their street. Trying to put this incident into his past and go on with his life, the main characters stumbles across others who were involved in the incident over the course of his life, learning new facts until he finally discovers the force behind the whole event

The author does a good job of portraying the detachment of the main characters, his avoidance of this memory, only showing interest in discovering t...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 29, 2012 Seth Golbey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, other-fiction

"He...stood with his back to the future and his face toward the past. Whenever he thought about time, which he did once in a while, he did not conceive of events as coming out of the future to move through the present into the past. Instead, they developed out of the past in the present on their way to an unknown future."

This is a book about memory and how a memory -- in this case the massacre of the Dutch protagonist's family by the Germans in the closing days of World War II -- shapes a life....more

like · see review

May 19, 2011 Jos rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Na "Archibald Strohalm" en "Het proces Eichmann" wou ik eigenlijk "De ontdekking van de hemel" lezen totdat ik in de Bib op "De aanslag" stootte. Voltreffer zou ik zeggen, mooi verteld en schitterend aan mekaar geknoopt. Het verteld het verhaal van Anton Steenwijk vanaf de avond van de aanslag op een collaborerend agent, op het einde van de tweede wereldoorlog, dat zich afspeelt voor de deur van zijn ouderlijk huis tot in de jaren tachtig . Stukje bij beetje ontrafelt het verhaal zich en geeft h...more

like · see review

Jul 02, 2009 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Harry Mulisch (b. 1927) is sometimes counted as one of the two greatest living writers of Dutch-language fiction, the other being Cees Nooteboom. Of the two, Mulisch is perhaps less experimental but more engagaing. "The Assault" is a quick read, largely because the plot concerns the unraveling of a mystery: precisely what happened on a tragic night in 1945 that led to the execution of the narrator's parents and older brother? In addition, "The Assault" says much about the way the Second World Wa...more

like · see review

Jul 14, 2012 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: real-war-fiction

I liked this book a whole lot more than All Quiet on the Western Front. I understand they are two different war novels (covering two different wars), one the story of a soldier, the other a victim of the war, but both are addressing the effect of war on, for lack of a better term, the human soul. I read these books so close together that it's hard for me to not draw comparisons between them, and that's what I'll do for this review.

First, the protagonist. I found Anton to be far more likable and...more I liked this book a whole lot more than All Quiet on the Western Front. I understand they are two different war novels (covering two different wars), one the story of a soldier, the other a victim of the war, but both are addressing the effect of war on, for lack of a better term, the human soul. I read these books so close together that it's hard for me to not draw comparisons between them, and that's what I'll do for this review.

First, the protagonist. I found Anton to be far more likable and far more consistent than Paul. Anton was not constantly consumed by what had happened but was also not entirely detached from it. He lived his life and found happiness in it. He took the good with the bad. He understood how others could not understand what had happened to him because he didn't fully understand himself. He could empathize with the other players in his life story, he was not all consumed about himself. Compare this to Paul who could not find any comfort in family or friends or life. He thought only of himself and how others actions affected him (really, this is true - even the man he kills in the trenches he thinks more about the mans noises affecting his calm, his conscience over killing the man and trying to appease the man's spirit by paying money to his family).

Second, the message. All Quiet on the Western Front was just a tale of how bad war is (it's bad). The Assault was a tale of how bad war is (it's bad) but also about how the sides aren't always black and white. The most powerful part of the Assault for me was that there were remarkably few guilty parties given what all had happened. The Nazis who laughed while burning down the house were certainly guilty. But Anton's mother attacked the Nazi officer and we don't know the complete details of how his parents were shot, so it's possible that they were shot 'in self defense' rather than cold blood. The neighbors who moved the body did so to protect their home, but they also moved the body further from the home that was hiding Jews. The son of the assassinated collaborator lost his father and his family was heavily impacted with the loss of the evil man. The resistance fighter who shot the collaborator lost his love and his brother but also cost Anton's family, at the very least, their house. Who is innocent and who is guilty? In war - who can say? I believe that The Assault carried a far bigger and far more important message than did All Quiet on the Western Front because it does not simply condemn war - that's easy to do. But it tried to bridge the black and white lines that we draw in defining the 'good guy' and the 'bad buy' by showing us that we all do what we do, and nothing more.(less)

like · see review

Apr 16, 2012 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: in-translation

A beautiful book of darkness and light, a book of how war marks a child and the rest of his life is spent coming to some kind of grips with the trauma and loss. Not in big bursts and frenzies most common in literature, but an acceptance through a quiet progression of incidents, a subdued awakening of memory, numbered tears and new life and threads that almost all come together but not quite. I knew I would love it when I read this:

Occasionally in the late twilight when his mother forgot to call...more

like · see review

Mar 13, 2013 Lauren Hopkins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Love this book. Through the story of one man trying to come to terms with his memory of war, Mulisch completely encapsulates the entire Dutch problem of history and memory. The book's narrative makes for an interesting sort of mystery story with Anton trying to figure out what exactly happened to his family on the night Fake Ploeg is killed, but the more important aspect of the work is Mulisch's exploration of how to deal with common postwar themes like blame, forgiveness, and the classic moral...more

like · see review

Sep 24, 2011 John Severs rated it 4 of 5 stars

Some of the prose in this book is superb and there are some real gems in there. For example, some people say the past is behind you and you have the future to look forward to as if events already exist in the future and they flow through the present into the past but in reality the future doesn't exist. You could die at any moment and by looking to the future you are actually looking into a void. The book starts explosively with the assault and we see the development of the main character from a...more

like · see review

Jul 27, 2012 Thaisa Frank rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a second re-read for me of Harry Mulisch's book about a 12-year-old boy who survivs the murder of his family in WWII Holland after the muder of a hated Nazi officer. (Although I've moved on from writing about WWII, I'm still ineplicably drawn to it.) Most re-reads are disappointing. This one wasn't. The book is elegantly written and elegantly translated by Claire Nicolas White. It moves easily from the first event to the boy as an older man, and explores the easily-cliched (but not here...more

like · see review

Mar 26, 2013 Jules rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Whenever I read a Dutch classic, part of me still expects to be examined on the symbolic values of the novel by 'Meneer' Bakker in the library for my highschool exams - do we ever really graduate?

De Aanslag is a typical Dutch novel, meaning it deals with World War II trauma, relationship to parents, symbolism, and a detached male protagonist (missing the fifth prerequisite to Dutch literature: sex). Mulisch is great because he always succeeds at being very philosophical but still create a palpab...more

like · see review

Jun 12, 2012 Paul Haspel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: netherlands

After reading Harry Mulisch's The Assault, one is likely to look at life in a manner that is thoughtful and sober and deeply sad. It is not just that Mulisch, one of the pre-eminent Dutch writers of the 20th century, chronicles the cruelty of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, although he does so in a powerful and effective manner. Rather, I find that the key to the success of The Assault lies in the artful manner in which Mulisch considers how a traumatic event can continue to impact those...more After reading Harry Mulisch's The Assault, one is likely to look at life in a manner that is thoughtful and sober and deeply sad. It is not just that Mulisch, one of the pre-eminent Dutch writers of the 20th century, chronicles the cruelty of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, although he does so in a powerful and effective manner. Rather, I find that the key to the success of The Assault lies in the artful manner in which Mulisch considers how a traumatic event can continue to impact those who survive it, even years after the event itself has passed into history.

De Aanslag (the novel's original Dutch title when it was first published in 1982) begins in a quiet neighborhood on the edge of Haarlem, where four houses sit by themselves, like the beginning of a suburb that was never built. The first of the novel's five episodes takes place in 1945, during the grim last winter of the Second World War -- a period that is still known in Holland as "the starving time." The protagonist, Anton Steenwijk, lives there with his parents and his older brother, and all four look ahead with hope that the end of the war will come soon. But their hopes are shattered when a Dutch Nazi collaborator, a known sadist named Fake Ploeg, is shot dead outside one of the four homes. (As if to underscore the reality of these events, the cover of the Pantheon Books paperback version of The Assault features a picture of a Dutch police officer named Fake Krist, killed by Dutch Resistance fighters in October of 1944.) A neighbor moves the body in front of the Steenwijks' home, and when the Germans arrive, they methodically kill Anton's mother, father, and brother. Anton himself survives almost by chance -- the rest of that night a bizarre odyssey in which he experiences the extremes of human kindness and cruelty.

The novel's subsequent episodes take place in 1952, 1956, 1966, and 1981. In each episode, Anton, in one way or another, re-experiences the event that defines his life. As he goes from medical school to career and marriage and a quiet life, and as the world moves from the aftermath of World War II to a Cold War and fears of nuclear conflict, Anton keeps on meeting neighbors and acquaintances from the winter of 1945; and each time, Anton learns something he did not know about the assault that claimed the lives of his family. Each new revelation, far from providing resolution or closure, only increases Anton's sense of the impossibility of truly knowing, or understanding, or finding any sort of meaning to, what happened that night.

Some readers might find Anton's periodic encounters with people tied to his past overly coincidental. To them, I can only say that the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a relatively small country; and on the basis of my time in Holland, I did not find it too much to believe that a character might encounter these people over the course of 35 years.

Readers who appreciate The Assault might want to check out Fons Rademakers' 1986 film adaptation, an Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film. The novel itself is economically written, with an understated style and tone that increase the emotional power of the novel's events. The Assault is a thoughtful and moving novel with a strong philosophical quality.(less)

like · see review

Apr 08, 2011 Doug rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mulisch died last year, and I had owned this book for about 15 years and never read it. Since I continue to be drawn into war-related literature, I finally dove into this book. Really strong and interesting, philosophical too in its way. The plot is simple: 12-year old Anton survives a Nazi assault on his family and their property as they hunker down in Haarlem near the end of the war. The rest of the book plays out scenes from Anton's life, reflecting how this past trauma influences his life. I...more

like · see review

Jan 19, 2012 Mary H rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thought this was a thoughtful and engrossing story of how one event can define a life. The assault was unprovoked but destroyed a family and sent a young boy off to live a life he didn't foresee. Although he builds a successful career and has a family he loves, he is haunted by the assault and the mysteries behind what happened. Over the years, he gains insight into what he experienced that night and finally understands that the horror hid a good intention. Things are not what they seem. We ca...more

like · see review

May 10, 2011 LCPL Lake County (IN) Public Library added it

"On a cold winter night in 1945, a Nazi collaborator is murdered in a quiet neighborhood in Amsterdam. A family is unjustly accused, their home destroyed; the parents and an older son, killed. The surviving son, raised by relatives, chooses to suppress his memories of the incident and live a "normal" life, but reminders of that night persist and affect his relationships until he finally discovers what actually happened that night and accepts the realization that no one was really guilty - or inn...more

like · see review

Feb 13, 2011 Manar rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really loved this book. I love books that have, like, critical layers. And this book was exploding with it. Every line was so layered with meaning that I couldn't help but have braingasm after braingasm while reading.

The ending was not spectacular. It was good. But it wasn't as fulfilling as I had hoped. However, a friend told me that it grows on you, and I'm finding that to be at least a little bit true. After all, immediately after finishing it, I was a bit disappointed, and now that disappo...more

like · see review

Apr 24, 2013 Karlo Mikhail Mongaya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: excellent

This year we would be celebrating the 68th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany and its Axis allies during the Second World War. In this war the former Soviet Union, under the leadership of the Joseph Stalin, overcame great odds and delivered deathblows against the forces of fascism. While the Red Army pushed back the Blitzkrieg and caused a shift in the tides of war, patriotic forces in the occupied countries heroically took up armed resistance against the Nazi invaders. However, the role...more

like · see review

Mar 22, 2013 Catherine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

The Assault is a book about self discovey and piecing ones life back together after a horrific experience. Anton has survived the war: German occupation, the tragic death of his entire family, and the odd occurence of meeting a girl who changes his life. As the story unravels Anton seeks the truth about what truly happened he night his family was murdered. Mulisch does this in a beautifully woven series of events that lead to the peace Anton has been searching for his whole life.
As a YA reader,...more The Assault is a book about self discovey and piecing ones life back together after a horrific experience. Anton has survived the war: German occupation, the tragic death of his entire family, and the odd occurence of meeting a girl who changes his life. As the story unravels Anton seeks the truth about what truly happened he night his family was murdered. Mulisch does this in a beautifully woven series of events that lead to the peace Anton has been searching for his whole life.
As a YA reader, this book doesn’t have the usual adrenaline-pumping side effects I associate with books now (you know, the zombie Apocalypse, life altering love triangles, sparkling vamps…), but it does have something to offer to a YA reader. Anton is twelve/thirteen-ish when the body of a natorious torturer and murderer Nazi, named Fake, is dumped on their step. Note the dumped part. Finding out why he was dumped on their step, is almost the whole point of Anton’s journey. Fake was shot down the street in front of their neighbors house by communists, and their neighbor’s fear of being killed for having the body in their lawn leads them to quickly move it in front of Anton’s house. By the time the S.S. arrive, Peter, the seventeen year old who is Anton’s older brother is caught attempting to move the body so he takes off in a run with the stolen gun off Fake and Anton’s parents are lead away. Anton on the otherhand is taken to a jail cell where he meets a girl named Truus. She’s pretty young herself at eighteen and gives a beautiful speech about love and hate, light and darkness, and communists versus fascists. Anton immediatly falls in love with her but later that night he is shipped off to his uncle’s in Amsterdam without any word from his family and without learning anything about Truus or why she was in jail. This is what sets up the story, and after a few years Anton begins to learn about what truly happened that night.
Some of the best parts of this book are simply looking at the interesting ideas you can draw from it, some thoughtful lines, and a few twists you weren’t expecting. The most interesting parts of the book are by far the interesting conclusions you can draw from it like Anton growing up to be an anestesiaologist because he wants to suppress other people’s pain, which is what he has been trying to do himself about the night of the assault. Besides these little nerdy lit things that are entertaining enough, there are some intersting plot twists involving Truus and Fake Jr., Fake (dead guy) son. It’s very interesting to see how the two boy’s lives turn out when both confronted wih similar situations and it is explored in the novel. Fake Jr. is easily one of the most interesting characters, or tragic, of the whole novel.

Warnings:

This book drags, for all the hype I just gave it– it’s a nerd book. It isn’t fun, there isn’t romance, there isn’t action. It borders on boring half the time, and that’s just because of the writing style mostly and innate details. The moments that are intense, make it worth it.
Not going to lie, the ending kind of sucks. Like, a lot.
It’s centered completely around one person– like most stories– but there is barely any secondary characters and half the time they are dead after the first three-ish chapters. So if you don’t like Anton’s somewhat dull personality, you’re screwed.
Overall this is not a book for your typical YA reader. First of all, this isn’t a YA book but the writing and concepts are easy enough to understand. Second of all, you have to be dedicated to go through this whole thing. The pay off is there though, thoughtful conclusions and interesting ways to look at guilt and Anton’s FOIL is an interesting side story.(less)

like · see review

Oct 17, 2011 Meikoningin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Spoiler alert ! Twelve year old Anton lives with his parents and his brother in Haarlem, near Amsterdam. The war is almost at an end, but occupied Holland still suffers great hardship - there is hardly enough food to eat, the schools are closed in the winter because they can not be heated. One January evening, "in the silence that was Holland then, six shots suddenly rang out." Fake Ploeg, "Chief Inspector of Police, the greatest murderer and traitor in Haarlem" has been shot as he rode his bicy...more Spoiler alert ! Twelve year old Anton lives with his parents and his brother in Haarlem, near Amsterdam. The war is almost at an end, but occupied Holland still suffers great hardship - there is hardly enough food to eat, the schools are closed in the winter because they can not be heated. One January evening, "in the silence that was Holland then, six shots suddenly rang out." Fake Ploeg, "Chief Inspector of Police, the greatest murderer and traitor in Haarlem" has been shot as he rode his bicycle. The Steenwijk's neighbors rush out and drag the body, which had fallen in front of their house, in front of the Steenwijk's house. Everyone knows the Germans will retaliate. Peter, Anton's brother runs out to move the body elsewhere, but it is too late. The Germans arrive, Peter flees, the Steenwijks are rounded up, their house immediately burned to the ground. Anton is taken away from the scene.
Anton is not treated harshly, the police do not know what to do with him. He winds up in Amsterdam, where an uncle is called to pick him up the next day.
Anton's parents and his brother were killed, though this is only discovered after the war is finally over. Anton is raised by his aunt and uncle. The assault is part of his past, but he can not directly confront it. In the second episode, in 1952, he finally ventures back to Haarlem to the scene of the crime. In 1956, during anticommunist demonstrations he runs into Fake Ploeg Jr., the son of the murdered collaborator and a former classmate of Anton's. Ploeg's life was also turned upside down by the events of that evening; he never finished school and now works as repair man. In their conversation Ploeg argues that his father was as innocent as Steenwijk's parents, that his own loss was as great as Anton's, suggesting a different measure of guilt and innocence.
Anton becomes an anaesthesiologist, and he marries. At a funeral in 1966 he meets a man who was involved in the assault on Ploeg, and again questions of guilt and innocence are raised. The assassin, a member of the Dutch Resistance, acknowledges that they knew the Germans would retaliate, that innocents would die as a result of the attack, but he argues that he could only be held responsible for those deaths he actually caused.
Finally, in 1981, Anton runs into one of the neighbors who had moved Ploeg's body in front of the Steenwijk house that night, learning for the first time why they had done this - and why they had chosen this (and not another) neighboring house.
Told against the backdrop of shifting Dutch post-war society, centered around significant points in that history - the reaction to the events in Budapest in 1956, the release of Willy Lages (head of the Gestapo in Holland), anti-nuclear protests in 1981 - Mulisch paints a canvas of the difficulties of Dutch society in coming to terms with the events of the war. There are no easy answers for Mulisch, no simple blame to assign, even where it first appears there might be. The hand of fate lurks strongly here, but Mulisch has a subtle touch with it.
An important, and very good, book. Highly recommended.

(less)

like · see review

May 28, 2009 Lindsey rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was not what I expected, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. The basic plot is that a Nazi collaborator in occupied Holland is killed and the Nazis slaughter an innocent family in return. Only one member of the family survives: a 12 year old boy. All this happens in the prologue. The rest of the book is spent popping in on the boy at several points throughout his life as he grows up, deals with life, and is forced to deal with his past. I would recommend this book to any...more

like · see review

Mar 09, 2013 Stacy Stutz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

Harry Mulisch is proclaimed to be Holland's most important post WWII writer... and this book is critically acclaimed. It should be a fascinating read, the story line is good. Reading it is like eating stale dry toast and washing it down with warm water.

Perhaps it is because it is a translation and was written for a Dutch reader - but there is no emotion. I really had to force myself to read the final 30 pages. Still, I am glad that I did as the ending was very much worth it.

like · see review

Nov 29, 2010 UChicagoLaw added it

Shelves: faculty-recommendations, 2010-faculty-recommendations

The Assault is a fictionalized account of the aftereffects of the assassination of a Nazi collaborator. It details the (physical and psychological) repercussions for the family of the collaborator, the families living on the street on which the assassination took place, and the Resistance members who effected the assassination. Most of all, though, this is a book about how people react to terrible situations and then try to live with the decisions they make. - Julie A. Roin

like · see review

Apr 25, 2013 Mirjam rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was given this book to read by my daughters English teacher.
Couldnt put it down.
Mr. Mulisch is a master at setting the mood, that scene in the swimming pool, the menace coming of the uniforms in that setting, masterly.
Mr.Mulisch writes with a deep understanding of human nature and with great compassion for that what motivates the human species.

like · see review

Jul 03, 2012 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

My reviews tend to be short. But overall I really enjoyed this book. Short, sparse, not melodramatic or overly sentimental, it tells the story of a boy who's orphaned during the Second World War. His family is slaughtered because of a misunderstanding, but it's the kindness of a stranger on that same night that overshadows the main character for life.

like · see review

Aug 09, 2011 Turan added it · review of another edition

Großartig erzählt, wie nicht anders von Mulisch zu erwarten. Am Ende wird deutlich, dass Schwarz-Weiß-Schemata nicht helfen, den Krieg zu verstehen. Menschen sterben, ob sie nun sadistische Nazis, unpolitische Zivilisten oder kommunistische Widerstandskämpfer waren, sie alle sterben, und die Überlebenden werden den Krieg im Kopf nicht los.

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
misspelling	1	28	Apr 17, 2010 06:40am
Blame	1	27	Nov 01, 2008 04:39pm

combine
Other Editions (29)

More editions...

Genres

European Literature > Dutch Literature

10 users

Literature

5 users

History > World War II

5 users

Historical Fiction

3 users

Novels

3 users

Book Club

3 users

Literary Fiction

3 users

Literature > 20th Century

3 users

Classics

2 users

Contemporary

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

De donkere kamer van Damokles
by Willem Frederik Hermans
Hersenschimmen
by J. Bernlef
De avonden
by Gerard Reve
The Twins
by Tessa de Loo
Heren van de thee
by Hella S. Haasse

About Harry Mulisch

Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch along with W.F. Hermans and Gerard Reve, is considered one of the "Great Three" of Dutch postwar literature. He has written novels, plays, essays, poems, and philosophical reflections.

Mulisch was born in Haarlem and has lived in Amsterdam since 1958, following the death of his father in 1957. Mulisch's father was from Austria-Hungary and emigrated to the Netherlands after...more Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch along with W.F. Hermans and Gerard Reve, is considered one of the "Great Three" of Dutch postwar literature. He has written novels, plays, essays, poems, and philosophical reflections.

Mulisch was born in Haarlem and has lived in Amsterdam since 1958, following the death of his father in 1957. Mulisch's father was from Austria-Hungary and emigrated to the Netherlands after the First World War. During the German occupation in World War II he worked for a German bank, which also dealt with confiscated Jewish assets. His mother, Alice Schwarz, was Jewish. Mulisch and his mother escaped transportation to a concentration camp thanks to Mulisch's father's collaboration with the Nazis. Due to the curious nature of his parents' positions, Mulisch has claimed that he is the Second World War.

A frequent theme in his work is the Second World War. His father had worked for the Germans during the war and went to prison for three years afterwards. As the war spanned most of Mulisch's formative phase, it had a defining influence on his life and work. In 1963, he wrote a non-fiction work about the Eichmann case: The case 40/61. Major works set against the backdrop of the Second World War are De Aanslag, Het stenen bruidsbed, and Siegfried.
Additionally, Mulisch often incorporates ancient legends or myths in his writings, drawing on Greek mythology (e.g. in De Elementen), Jewish mysticism (in De ontdekking van de Hemel and De Procedure), well-known urban legends and politics (Mulisch is politically left-wing, notably defending Fidel Castro since the Cuban revolution). Mulisch is widely read and (according to his critics) often flaunts his philosophical and even scientific knowledge.
Mulisch gained international recognition with the movie De Aanslag (The Assault), (1986) which was based on his eponymous book. It received an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best foreign movie and has been translated in more than twenty languages.
His novel De ontdekking van de Hemel (1992) was filmed in 2001 as The Discovery of Heaven by Jeroen Krabbé, starring Stephen Fry.
Amongst many awards he has received for individual works and his total body of work, the most important is the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Prize of Dutch Literature, an official lifetime achievement award) in 1995.(less)

More about Harry Mulisch...

Books by Harry Mulisch

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Assault

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Assault

“Hate is the darkness, that's no good. And yet we've got to hate Fascists, and that's considered perfectly all right. How is that possible? It's because we hate them in the name of the light, I guess, whereas they hate only in the name of darkness. We hate hate itself, and for this reason our hate is better than theirs.
But that's why it's more difficult for us. For them everything is very simple, but for us it's more complicated. We've got to become a little bit like them in order to fight them so we become a little bit unlike ourselves. But they don't have that problem; they can do away with us without any qualms. We first have to do away with something inside ourselves before we can do away with them. Not them; they can simply remain themselves, that's why they're so strong. But they'll lose in the end, because they have no light in them. The only thing is, we mustn't become too much like them, mustn't destroy ourselves altogether, otherwise they'll have won in the end...” — 6 people liked it

“A man who has never been hungry may possess a more refined palate, but he has no idea what it means to eat.” — 5 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Assault
avg rating	preview: The Assault Goodreads rating: 3.67 (2633 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88387.The_Assault?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320881004l/88387.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88387.The_Assault?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Assault by Harry Mulisch[/url]

The Assault

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website