An Untouched House [Paperback]

A brooding meditation on violence by a classic post-war Dutch writer who has drawn comparisons to Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut.

A mesmerizing, dark meditation on the legacy of war. An interloper and opportunist makes a grand house his own in the chaos of a war-torn countryside, only to find himself involved with occupying forces and enraged locals.One of Ian McEwan's 'most underrated books'

Profoundly unsettling . . . haunt[s] the mind for long afterwards.  — The Sunday Times, A Book of the Year

Those who do simply open and read will find themselves immersed in a nightmare miniature where philosophical musing gives seamless way to beautiful but unyielding cruelty...this newer translation by David Colmer seems to better capture the unsettling horror. — Ben Murphy, Full Stop

Although An Untouched House is brief, it is worth pacing oneself and absorbing its remarkable density. Hermans is the architect of a masterful story –– concise but expansive in vision...a lucid, exhilarating account. — Peyton Harvey, Zyzzyva

Hermans’s novella is a bleak depiction of the absurdity of war, which knows no winners.  — Felix Haas,World Literature Today

A shocking Dutch classic… remarkable… It takes an hour or two to read, but An Untouched House is the kind of book that stays with you for ever. — The Guardian

From the opening pages, the translator David Colmer brilliantly evokes the laconic tone of a narrator who proves intelligent, resourceful and increasingly deranged... By any light, this eloquent marvel teases, bewilders and unnerves. — Times Literary Supplement

  This novella is a fascinating portrait of a solipsistic mind, a scrupulous rendering of the erosion ofl“I