THE BLACK LAKE / OEROEG – Romance by Hella Haasse

Do not forget, she has an asteroid named after her, and also she has the first Dutch digital online museum dedicated to the life and work of an author. Hélène Haasse is born on February day, 1918 in Jakarta. She was the daughter of civil servant and author Willem Hendrik and concert pianist Katharina, her family was not very religious. In 1935, her family visited the Netherlands, after which she became aware of differences between the Dutch and East Indian society. East Indies continued to play an important part in her work. Krassen op een rots, Oeroeg and her last novel Sleuteloog, they has the same theme: is a friendship between a Dutch colonial and an Indonesian child possible. She died on September day, 2011 in Amsterdam.

The novel, is set in the Dutch East Indies, and tells the story of an anonymous narrator growing up on a plantation in the Dutch colony West Java. His childhood friend is a boy of the same age, but of native descent. As the narrator grows up he finds himself becoming estranged from his friend, as a result of the political and racial circumstances of colonial life. After having served in the army during World War II, he returns to his native land, only to be told that this is not where he belongs, and that he must leave. Oeroeg (The Black Lake), https://www.amazon.com/Black-Lake-Hella-S-Haasse/dp/1846273234 is the first novel by Hella Haasse, one of the best-known Dutch novels and a staple of literary education for many Dutch school children.