The 1993 Boekenweek gift, written in the form of fragments from the diary of a young man living on false papers in occupied Amsterdam between March and October 1944. In the course of a half-baked scheme to build a clandestine radio transmitter, Karel engineers a date with telegraph operator Madelon, whose morse code skills he hopes to exploit. He finds himself sucked into a triangular relationship with her and her fiancé Tjeu, (apparently based on a similar situation Hermans got into during the war). Needless to say, things don't go well: the story becomes a sort of edgy dialogue between the banal ups and downs of Karel's love affair and the life-and-death problems of trying to survive — and if possible do some harm to the Germans — in the wartime situation. ( )