Black Book (novel)

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**Title** **Black Book**
First edition cover
Author	Laurens Abbink Spaink
Original title	Zwartboek
Country	Netherlands
Language	Dutch
Genre(s)	Thriller, Historical novel
Publisher	Uitgeverij Podium
Released	2006
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	224 pages
ISBN	ISBN 905759028X

Black Book (Dutch: Zwartboek) is a 2006 thriller novel by Laurens Abbink Spaink. It is the novelization of the film Black Book (2006). Black Book tells the story of Rachel Stein, a Jewish young woman who tries to survive at the end of the Second World War. The book has a photo section, and an afterword by Paul Verhoeven en Gerard Soeteman.

1 Plot summary
2 Novelization
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story is, apart from the prologue and epilogue, a first-person narrative told by the Jewish girl Rachel Stein. The novel is set at the end of World War II in the Netherlands.

In September 1944, Rachel was 26 years old, the Stein family was hiding from the Nazi regime. The Jewish Rachel lives with a Christian family in the Biesbosch, separated from her own family. Here she was not allowed to go out. One day she decided to sunbathe near some water, where she met Rob, a man of her age, who was sailing on the water. Then a British airplane accidentally dropped a bomb on the house in which she was hiding. While she stayed with Rob, they met Mr. Van Gein who said he wanted to help her flee to the liberated Belgium. She needed money which she got from Mr. Smaal in The Hague. During the escape, she was reunited with her parents and brother. However the escape boat, with Rachel, Rob, the Stein family and other Jews, was ambushed. Hidden in the water she had a good sight on the German officer who was responsible. Everyone was killed except for Rachel.

Rachel was smuggled into The Hague in a coffin as if she had passed away. In the city she joined a resistance group led by Mr. Kuipers. She died her hair blond and used the alias Ellis de Vries. While she and the resistance group tried to smuggle medicine and weapons they were discovered by German soldiers. All Germans got killed by resistance group member Hans. Rachel and Hans traveled by train with the contraband. In the train Rachel met German officer Müntze, who helped her with her suitcases. Tim, the son of Mr. Kuipers, together with several other members of the resistance group, were captured by the Germans. They made a plan: Rachel will contact the German officer and help them in getting the prisoners released.

Then Rachel went to the office of the Sicherheitsdienst to meet Officer Müntze. She brought him rare stamps for his collection and he invited her to come to a party. At the party she was asked to sing German songs for the German staff. There she again saw the officer who killed her parents, Officer Franken. After the party she slept with Officer Müntze. He told her he lost his wife and children in an air raid. Rachel and Officer Müntze fell in love. Rachel was offered a job at the SD and bugs the office. They found out that Officer Franken wanted to kill the resistance group members, but Officer Müntze wanted to spare their lives at the end of the war. They also found out Mr. Van Gein was a collaborator with the Germans. The resistance group murders Mr. Van Gein. Officer Müntze found out Rachel was Jewish, but was not using this knowledge against her.

Officer Müntze was arrested for ignoring orders to kill prisoners. On the birthday of Adolf Hitler there was a party at the SD office. Rachel convinced the resistance group to free Officer Müntze during the rescue operation of Tim and the others. At the party Rachel helped some resistance group members to get into the building, but in the end she got arrested herself by Officer Franken. The following morning Rachel was rescued by Officer Müntze, and they fled to Rob's sailing boat. Rachel and Officer Müntze talked about the war, about who the informant of Officer Franken could be, and what they will do after the war. On May 5, 1945 they heard Dutch nationalist songs on the radio: the Netherlands were liberated.

After the liberation there was chaos, while traitors and collaborators were arrested. Rachel and Officer Müntze suspected Mr. Smaal and paid him a visit. When they were at his house, Mr. Smaal was murdered. Rachel took a little black book with notes from Mr. Smaal. Then Rachel and Officer Müntze were arrested. Rachel was treated very badly in prison, but Hans and a Canadian officer freed her from prison. Right after, Hans tried to kill Rachel with an overdoses of insulin, but she used chocolate bars as an antidote. She escaped through the window and she shook off Hans in the crowd on the street. Later she told Mr. Kuiper that Hans is the traitor, and showed the black book with the notes from Mr. Smaal. Hans had been arrested by the Germans and was forced to cooperate. Mr. Kuipers and Rachel found out Hans was trying to escape in a coffin filled with stolen money from the Jews. They tracked him down, sealed the coffin, and Hans suffocated.

In the epilogue Rachel lived on a kibbutz in Israel, funded with the stolen money from the Jews. She worked there as a teacher.^[1]

[edit] Novelization

The novel is written by Laurens Abbink Spaink and editor Erik Brus in two and a half months. The story is based on the screenplay written by Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman. When writer Laurens Abbink Spaink is asked in NRC Handelsblad whether the book is only a commercial product or also a literary work, he answers: "Black Book is a literary thriller. Its form is in between the typical American novelization, only describing what the camera sees, and a literary novel. The novelization adds something to the film. I gave Rachel Stein a past, memories and a house. In the film she did not have a personal space."^[2]

[edit] Reception

Herman Franke writes positively about the novel in de Volkskrant: "The novel Black Book thoroughly puts into words what the film shows you. In black and white is confirmed what you half missed in the crisscross of story lines while you were watching: the piano is played by the left hand and people are tortured by the right hand, monsters can appear as soft people, and justice is easily off the right track. I have read the book as the bleak minutes of the chaotic massacre I saw in full colour. It made the film more immoral, and better."^[3]