Repatriated

A blackly funny comedy about a mad family in Holland, by internationally bestselling author Adriaan Van Dis. ‘If this writer were English, his book would be a dead certainty for the booker shortlist - There is wit and there is pathos - worthy and well done’ Scotland on Sunday

In Repatriated the world is a dangerous place and the bomb is ticking - at home and abroad.In a seaside town in the Netherlands, Mr Java - a war damaged ex-colonial - drills his son for the future, drawing him deeper and deeper into his delusionary world. As the radio broadcasts news of H bomb tests, Mr Java writes letters of complaint to the authorities, dreams of horses, and stands at the front window, on the look out for special security spies and nuclear holocaust. His wife and her three daughters from a previous marriage in Indonesia form a sort of Greek chorus, providing a sceptical commentary as his obsessions build towards a dark, absurdist climax.Repatriated is an inventive, blackly funny novel that shows an adolescent boy trying to break free from his parents and finding he cannot escape their past.