The Sorrow of Belgium
Hugo Claus
 Belgium, 1939. Louis Seynaeve, who becomes eleven in April, goes to a boarding school led by nuns in Kortrijk. Louis has a lot of fantasy. He and his friends call themselves the Four Apostles and they possess seven forbidden books. His father comes to tell him that his mother fell down the stairs, which actually means that she is pregnant. Several months later the baby is stillborn. His family members are Flemish nationalists. Louis' father buys a printing press in Germany and a Hitlerjugend doll. During the German occupation of Belgium in the Second World War his family sympathises with the Germans. Louis attends meetings of the Hitlerjugend in Mecklenburg. Louis discovers more "forbidden books" and becomes interested in Entartete Kunst. Gradually he becomes aware of the narrow-mindedness of his family and his education. He ends up being a writer. He's the author of "The Sorrow", the first part of the novel.