Stunning historical novel from a master storyteller, set in occupied Holland during World War Two.
It is 1940 and the exiled Kaiser is living in Holland, at his palace Huis Doorn. The old German king spends his days chopping logs and musing on what might have been.
When the Nazis invade Holland, the Kaiser's Dutch staff are replaced by SS guards, led by young eager Untersturmfuhrer Krebbs, and an unlikely relationship develops between the king and his keeper. While they agree on the rightfulness of German expansion and on holding the country's Jewish population accountable for all ills, they disagree on the solutions.
Krebbs's growing attraction to, and love affair with, Akki, a Jewish maid in the house, further undermines his belief in Nazism. But as the tides of war roll around them, all three find themselves increasingly compromised and gravely at risk.
