Black Book (novel)
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| Black Book | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Laurens Abbink Spaink |
|---|---|
| Original title | Zwartboek |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Language | Dutch |
| Genre(s) | Thriller, Historical novel |
| Publisher | Uitgeverij Podium |
| Publication date | 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 and Gerard Soeteman.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The story is, apart from the prologue and epilogue, a first-person narrative told by Rachel Stein, young Jewish woman. The novel is set at the end of World War II in the Netherlands.
In September 1944, Rachel is 26 years old, and the Stein family is hiding from the Nazi regime. Rachel lives with a Christian family in the Biesbosch, away from the rest of her family. Here she was not allowed to go outside, though one day she goes sunbathing near the water. Here she meets Rob, a man of her age, who was on the water sailing. As they enjoy themselves on his boat, a crippled British bomber flies over while dropping its payload so it can climb to escape a pursuing fighter, and one of its bombs hits Rachel's hidaway. While she is staying with Rob, they are approached by a Dutch policeman named Van Gein, who offers to help them flee to liberated Belgium. She needs money for her escape, so she visits a lawyer named Smaal in The Hague. During the escape, she is reunited with her parents and brother; but their escape boat—with Rachel, Rob, the rest of the Stein family, and other Jews on board—is ambushed. Rachel hid herself in the water and got a good view of the SS officer who was responsible. Everyone except Rachel was killed.
Rachel is smuggled into Den Hague disguised as a corpse in a coffin. There she joins a resistance group led by Gerben Kuipers. She dyes her hair blond and uses the alias Ellis de Vries. While she and the resistance group try to smuggle medicine and weapons, they are interrupted by German security forces. All the Germans are killed by resistance group member Hans Akkermanns. Rachel and Hans travel by train with the contraband. In the train Rachel meets a Sicherheitsdienst (SD) officer, Ludwig Müntze, who helps her with her suitcases. Tim, Kuipers' son, and several other members of the resistance group, are later captured by the Germans; so the rest of the group plans to have Rachel make contact with Müntze and enlist him in helping them get the prisoners released.
Rachel goes to the SD headquarters to meet Müntze, bringing him rare stamps for his collection; he invites her to a party. At the party she spots the officer responsible for killing her parents, Günther Franken. After the party she sleeps with Müntze, and he tells her how he lost his wife and children in an air raid on Hamburg. Rachel and Müntze fall in love. Rachel was offered a job at the SD and bugs the office. Franken wants to execute the captured resistance group members, but Müntze refuses to sign the order. Rachel and the other resistance group members learn that Van Gein collaborates with the Germans, and they set out to capture him but wind up killing Van Gein. Müntze also learns that "Ellis" is Jewish and how she lost her family, but decides not to use this knowledge against her.
The dispute between Franken and Müntze culminates when Müntze is arrested for holding unauthorized negotiations with the enemy.
Later, a party is held to celebrate Hitler's the birthday at the SD office. Rachel convinces the resistance group to free Müntze during an operation to rescue Tim and the other imprisoned members. During the party Rachel helps the rescue group get into the building, but in the end they are almost all shot in an ambush and she is arrested by Franken. During the early morning hours, Müntze's driver rescues Rachel and Müntze, and they flee to Rob's sailboat. Rachel and Müntze talk about the war, about who could have informed on them to Franken, and what they would do after the war. On May 5, 1945, they hear Dutch nationalist songs on the radio and learn that the Netherlands has been liberated.
After the liberation there was chaos, and traitors and collaborators are arrested. Rachel and Müntze suspect Smaal as the informant and pay him a visit. When they are at his house, Smaal is murdered, and Rachel snatches a little black book with his notes from Smaal's body. Rachel and Müntze are captured, and Rachel is treated very badly in prison, but Hans and a Canadian officer free her. Taking her to his home, Hans tries to kill Rachel with an overdose of insulin, but she eats chocolate bars to counteract it. She escapes through a window and shakes off Hans as he pursues her through a crowd in the street. Later she tells Kuipers that Hans was Franken's informant and shows him the black book with Smaal's notes: Hans had been arrested by the Gestapo and made a deal with Franken to secure his own life. Kuipers and Rachel figure out that Hans is trying to get away in a coffin, taking with him the riches stolen from murdered Jews. They track him down and seal the coffin; Hans suffocates.
In the epilogue Rachel lives on a kibbutz in Israel, funded with the money, jewels, and other articles stolen from the Jews, where she works as a school 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]
[edit] References
- ^ Plot summary based on a book report by teacher Kees van der Pol.
Van der Pol, Kees (2006-10-01). Boekverslag Laurens Abbink Spaink. Zwartboek. www.scholieren.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-11. - ^ Van Baars, Laura. "De ‘verboeking’ van Zwartboek", NRC Handelsblad, 2006-09-15. Retrieved on 2007-01-11. (Dutch)
- ^ Franke, Herman. "Moraal in hapklare brokken op tafel", de Volkskrant, 2006-10-13. Retrieved on 2007-01-11. (Dutch)
[edit] External links
- Zwartboek at website of the publisher
