Rawwolf

RAUW0LF is a grand, carefully documented novel about the experiences of a young resistance fighter during the Second World War. Victor Rauwolf from Leuven joins the obscure organisation Spartacus, not out of political conviction but out of a healthy aversion to collaborators and an unquenchable thirst for adventure. He liquidates blacks, is betrayed, ends up in Fort Westerbeek where he is horribly tortured and finally ends up in a German concentration camp. Victor Rauwolf survives the war but a terrible disappointment awaits him in Belgium. Wilfried Hendrickx's favourite themes are addressed in this exciting story: man is an animal that is driven by the instinct for survival; civilisation and ethics are no more than a thin layer of varnish that cannot help but crack in extreme situations; when it comes to saving one's own skin, almost everyone throws ideals and ideologies overboard. The three crucial questions that this book raises are: can someone perform a completely selfless good deed? Does true heroism exist? And how much can a person take?