Tuesday 18 January 2011

van Loon, Karel "A Father's Affair"


van Loon, Karel "A Father's Affair" (Dutch: De passievrucht) - 1999

We read a book about the Netherlands or by a Dutch author from time to time. This was our first one.

Armin, the main character, lives with his 13 yo son whose mother passed away. Now Armin wants a child with his new girl friend. He finds out he's infertile and has always been. Which means he cannot be the father of his former girlfriend's son.

Even though the book is an easy read, it asks a lot of questions about relationships and parenthood. An interesting twist at the end, maybe not too unexpected but still quite nice.

We discussed this in our international book club in December 2002.

From the back cover:

"When Armin, the father of a 13-year-old son, discovers that he has been infertile all his life, he sets out on a quest to discover the biological father of his son, and is forced to reconsider everything he has ever believed in. This text asks the question, how well do we know the ones we love?"

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

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