Reunions Aren't Always Easy

 

Until recently, Simone Van Der Vlugt was a Dutch author known for her young adult novels. With Reunion she tackles adult crime fiction for the first time, to great success--it sold over 400,000 copies and was translated in German and French, with the English translation by Michele Hutchison.

This novel of psychological suspense takes its time peeling back layer after layer of the troubled life of protagonist Sabine, who's just returning to work after taking a medical leave due to "burn out" and depression. As told in an almost facile and straightforward first-person present tense narrative, we slowly delve deeper and deeper into the tortured psyche of Sabine and the memories she's repressed from her childhood which date to the time her former friend and subsequent tormentor Isabel disappeared without a trace. Nine years later, notice of a school reunion prompts those memories to return in tantalizing snippets that lead Sabine to revisit the small Dutch coastal town of Den Helder where it all began. She starts investigating on her own and comes to realize the potential suspects are among those closest to her, including her brother and her current and former lovers.

As we're drawn deeper into Sabine's world, we find ourselves pulling for her and want to get to the bottom of the mystery as much as she does. The ending is unsettling, and this is one book where you definitely don't want to peek, but even more unsettling are the themes of alienation, unhealthy relationships, and the ways humans find to torture each other in small incremental ways each and every day.

Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the book:

I stand at the entrance to the beach, my hands in the pockets of my jacket, and look out to sea. It’s 6 May and way too cold for this time of year. Apart from a solitary beachcomber, the beach is deserted. The sea is the colour of lead. Snarling and foaming, it swallows up more and more sand.

A little further up, a young girl sits on a bench. She too looks out to sea, hunched up in her padded jacket. She’s wearing sturdy shoes that can withstand the wind and rain. A school bag lies at her feet. Not far from where she’s sitting, her bike leans against the barbed wire fence. It’s padlocked, even though she’s nearby.

I knew I would find her here.

She stares blindly out to sea. Even the wind, which tugs at her clothing, can’t get a grip on her. It catches her light brown hair whirling around her head, but not her attention.

Despite her insensitivity to the cold, there’s a vulnerability about this girl that touches me.

I know her, yet I hesitate to speak to her because she doesn’t know me. But it’s extremely important that she gets to know me, that she listens to me, that I get through to her.

I walk towards the bench, my gaze fixed on the sea as if I’ve come here to enjoy the angry waves.

The girl looks the other way, her face expressionless. For a moment she seems to want to get up and leave, but then resigns herself to having her solitude invaded.

We sit next to each other on the bench, our hands in our pockets, and watch how air and water merge. I must say something.

She’ll leave soon and we won’t have exchanged a word. But what do you say when every word counts?

As I take a deep breath and turn towards her, she looks over at me. Our eyes are the same colour. We probably have the same expression too.

She’s about fifteen. The age Isabel was when she was murdered.

Although the book isn't easily available through U.S. channels just yet, you can find it on Amazon UK, and with any luck, Van Der Vlugt will not make Reunion her last venture into the genre.