Falling

Falling follows Lucas, a teenager who visits his late grandfather's home in the Ardennes with his mother during summer break. The visit brings him face to face with the town's complex history and long-buried secrets. In this Belgian town, Lucas encounters hostility, cryptic comments, and growing tensions related to both past events and current political shifts. His grandfather's wartime actions during the Nazi occupation cast a shadow over Lucas's experiences as he tries to understand the community's dynamics. The narrative centers on Lucas's gradual discovery of truth amid rising xenophobia and far-right influences in contemporary Belgium. His summer becomes a journey through personal, familial, and societal revelations. This novel explores themes of historical accountability, inherited guilt, and the cyclical nature of intolerance. Through its teenage protagonist, the story examines how younger generations grapple with the weight of their ancestors' choices.

Readers note the book's sensitive handling of difficult themes around xenophobia and extremism, particularly through the perspective of a teenage protagonist. Many find the story thought-provoking and relevant to current social issues. Readers praised: - Complex moral questions without simple answers - Development of family relationships - Realistic portrayal of how people can be drawn into extremist views - Translation quality from original Dutch Common criticisms: - Slow pacing in first third of book - Some found the ending unsatisfying - Several readers felt the protagonist's choices lacked credibility - Religious themes too heavy-handed for some Ratings: Goodreads: 3.6/5 (483 ratings) Amazon: 4.2/5 (12 ratings) LibraryThing: 3.5/5 (28 ratings) "Forces you to examine your own prejudices" - Goodreads reviewer "Important message but dragged in places" - Amazon reviewer "The protagonist's naivety stretched belief" - LibraryThing reviewer

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🔷 The Ardennes region, where the book is set, was a crucial battleground during the Battle of the Bulge - Hitler's last major offensive on the Western Front in WWII 🔷 Anne Provoost has won multiple prestigious awards, including the Flemish State Prize for Youth Literature and the Gouden Zoen for her contributions to young adult literature 🔷 The book was originally published in Dutch under the title "Vallen" and has since been translated into several languages, including English, German, and Danish 🔷 The novel's themes parallel Belgium's real-life struggles with far-right movements in the 1990s, when the book was first published 🔷 Provoost spent extensive time researching WWII collaboration in Belgium, where an estimated 25,000 Belgian citizens were convicted of collaborating with Nazi Germany after the war