War
The main theme of the novel is the Second World War. The major conflict in the novel is the gruesome act of German Nazi soldiers over an innocent family, which had to pay for the death of Fake Ploeg, a Nazi collaborator. The only one who survives is the youngest son and our protagonist, Anton. Anton was very young at that time and his child mind quickly adapted to the life with his aunt and uncle. Nevertheless, as he grows up, the emptiness of losing his family in such a way is presenting itself, which makes him go back to his old home and wonder what really happened on that terrible night.
Dealing with the past
As Anton is moving on with his life, marrying and having children, the puzzle of what happened on the night his parents died is piecing together. He discovers who killed Fake Ploeg and at the end how his body ended up in front of his home. At the end it all turned out to be a rather senseless set of circumstances as to why exactly his family had to pay for it. There is no exact person to blame, yet everyone is to blame in their own right. All is forgotten at the end and Anton who has lived through the War has no other option than to move forward with the crowd in a demonstration he was pushed into.
