Electronic resource
English language
Published Sept. 11, 2009 by Archipelago Books.
When his twin brother dies in a car accident, Helmer is obliged to return from university life to take over his brother's role on the small family farm, resigning himself to spending the rest of his days with his head under a cow. Thirty years later, Helmer moves his invalid father upstairs to have him out of the way. Soon after, Riet, once engaged to marry Helmer's twin, appears and asks if she and her troubled eighteen-year-old son could come to live with them on the farm. Ostensibly a novel about the canals, the green fields, and the unrelenting flatness of the Dutch countryside, The Twin ultimately opens itself to the possibility or impossibility of taking life into one's own hands. It chronicles a way of life that has resisted modernity and is culturally apart, yet is riven with longing.
I'm not sure how I feel about this tale of loneliness and elder abuse. It has a strong sense of place that makes for a compelling read, but I feel the author wants us to like the protagonist. His attitude towards his invalid father, monstrous though he may once have been, ensures we never do. If you're comfortable with that kind of ambiguity, this is a good, tightly constructed novel.
