The Elf Queen

English PhD candidate Emily is working on her dissertation in Cambridge when she meets Flemish writer Paul Deswaen. Paul has just discovered that his father, a socially committed teacher, did not die of tuberculosis, but was shot by a group of Flemish SS men. This news coincides with a series of mysterious events that seem to be connected to the fact that Deswaen is modernizing a forgotten novel by a nineteenth-century Flemish author for a publisher friend. Emily's arrival is the fulfillment of his destiny for him, and a sublime love affair develops. With the help of historical, even poignantly concrete data, the mysterious connection between Emily's appearance and the events that befall Deswaen is clarified. The Elf Queen (1989) is a tragic and at the same time cheerful, exceptionally entertaining novel in which thriller-like suspense and poetry go hand in hand.