De geruchten (1996)

I don't know, i honestly don't. It's a nice book on simple people, living in a small village, getting involved in not so simple events, partially root caused in past and present wars. In part 1 we get in short chapters different viewpoints on the current events with now and then references to the past. In part 2 the only thing we get is an interview by the police of one of the main characters confessing a series of events that happened some undefined time later then the ones in part 1.
Allthough the author was for some time mentionned to be a candidate Nobel prize winner, or at least considered so here in Belgium, he never got to me. Not with his masterwork Het verdriet van België, and not with this one as well.
Good village life descriptions, a nice feeling of some characteristics of the "small" people, well written.....but not gripping, "the bite" completely missing.
I feel no sympathy with any of the characters, no compassion, nothing really. The events also start to look a bit grotesque to me as the story unfolds...
No, Claus, i gave him a second try, based on the recommendation by a notorious reader on the monthly bookevent "Uitgelezen" ("Finished reading") in Ghent, Belgium, but it's a fail. ( )

The Rumours is about a long-lost son who comes home but upon his arrival, people start to become ill and die. The son carries a secret, but it's never revealed what's really happened to him. A bit disappointing. ( )