L'Ascesa by Stefan Hertmans

 Interesting book this one by Stefan Hertmans L'Ascesa

published by Marsilio. 

Well, it's a curious story, absolutely. 

Stefan bought a house in fact, finding it pretty attractive, located in Gand where he was born. He didn't know that that house had been once property of an SS. I wouldn't want to live in a place contaminated like that one, or in a house where it has been commited a homicide or a suicide but our man courageously maybe thought that after all this one would have been a great story for a potential book. 

And he was right. 

He found documents in the house, a house he kept for 20 years, interviewed the children of the man involved in this story, neighbors and whoever you can think at for trying to give new life to this man.

And the story of Willem Velhurst is interesting. He lost more or less completely the vision at an eye when little. He was a weird boy, not too much concludent and once adult fell in love for a married woman, Jew, escaping with her.

When she fell sick, and later died, knew another woman Mientje the daughter of a priest, and married her. 

Three children that will explain their life with this father pretty mysterious, at some point a devoted of Hitler. 

The family was pretty worried because of this dangerous passion of their beloved father and husband.

The wife of Willem was a woman of prayers. She prayed but she also kept active the house, in particular when Willem was captured, and taken prisoner: they needed money and artists in that house made the difference in terms of vivacity of the environment. It seemed that Willem after the trial had to spend the rest of his existence in jail but in a way or in another they converted this sentence and he returned to be free. Willem cheated the wife with another woman before to be captured and put in jail so he will continue to live his existence with the lover once set free.

The book closes with final considerations and the end of the various protagonists of this story. For sure a great research! I didn't know the story of all these States so the reading was interesting for this reason as well. 

Anna Maria Polidori