Gerrit Kouwenaar is one of the most famous and well-read Dutch poets of the last century, with translations in many languages. But regular Kouwenaar-readers will be surprised to discover him as the writer of a masterful piece of fiction: the novella Fall, Bomb. He published the book in the beginning of the fifties, before he made the decision to continue with poetry.

Fall, Bomb is the story of the seventeen-year-old student Karel Ruis in the maydays of 1940, when the Germans just invaded the Netherlands. His protected private life is ripped apart when the war breaks out. He completes a secret mission (the delivery of a letter to his uncle’s Jewish mistress) and experiences a crush (on the woman’s daughter), after which the future seems to hold only loss and loneliness. Fall, Bomb captures the disillusion of the young protagonist in a moving and convincing way. In interviews Kouwenaar later expressed that the book was very close to his experience and reflects the distress he felt at the outbreak of WWII. The book is written with empathy, sensitivity, and intelligence and strongly reminds us of famous Dutch all-time classic The Evenings by Gerard Reve.