Description:"Dazzling...Critics hailed Buwalda as 'The Dutch answer to Jonathan Franzen', but his brilliance is entirely unique."--The Times (UK)
Siem Sigerius is a beloved professor of mathematics with a bright future in politics. His beautiful family - step-daughters Joni and Janis, loving wife Tineke - and his carefully appointed home in the bucolic countryside of the Netherlands complete the portrait of a comfortable and morally upright liberal family. Joni's new boyfriend Aaron is starstruck when he is first introduced to his hopeful future in-laws, but he is soon welcomed into the family as one of their own.
But there are elements of Siem's past - including a son from a previous marriage with a dangerously violent history - that threaten to upset the perfect balance of success and happiness that the family as achieved. And Siem's own weaknesses lead him to make a discovery that reveals deception even closer to home than he realized. When a shocking...