Two elderly women meet at a Belgian health resort, and talk. That's all there is to this extraordinary novel: but it didn't get to be a Dutch bestseller, and Sunday Times Book of the Year for nothing. The women turn out to be long-lost twins, born in Germany in 1916 but separated after the death of their parents: Anna stayed at home in Cologne while the tubercular Lotte was sent to Holland to live with an uncle who had strong socialist sympathies. Back at the Belgian health resort, Lotte - who, during the war, risked her life many times over to save a stream of Jewish refugees - considers herself morally superior to the sister who married an SS officer, but is gradually forced to re-evaluate her hard-won assumptions as Anna tells a few horror stories of her own. This is a difficult subject, and De Loo tackles it with delicacy, warmth and an impressive generosity.
