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A short work, novella in length, set in, assumed to be rural Belgium sometime after WWII. The two main characters are Silvester and Margriet, childless couple, married 22 years, who spend their day and night lying in bed, eating dry bread and living off the government dole. Margriet lives in terror of another war. Silvester lives fairly happily in his head. He is mostly content with things as they are. They really are deadbeats, they don't have a clock or a calendar, no work and no ambition. Th
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This is another slight novel, set, perhaps, in Belgium, which is where the author was from. The protagonists are the most unlikeable, depressing pair that you are likely to meet between the pages of a book. I thought, when it was mentioned that it was twenty years since the war, that it had been set in 1938 or thereabouts, because they lived in a hovel with no modern amenities. But then the husband visited the Labour Office and there were mentions of memories of bombing raids and hiding in air r
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Oct 28, 2014
Amie
marked it as to-read
Jul 13, 2016
Anna Fennell
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Mar 02, 2017
Claire
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review of another edition
Shelves:
1001-books-to-read-before-you-die
Apr 27, 2017
Bryan--The Bee’s Knees
marked it as boxall-list-only
Dec 28, 2017
Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount)
marked it as 1001-tbr
Jan 03, 2018
Sara
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Jan 13, 2018
Sorobai
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Jun 02, 2019
Yvonne
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Jul 03, 2020
Lin
marked it as 1001-books-tr
Jan 07, 2021
Kayla Tocco
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Feb 07, 2021
Christoffer Jacobsen
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Sep 04, 2021
Maria
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Dec 05, 2023
Emrys
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