The Sorrow of Belgium

Blurb

The Sorrow of Belgium is a novel by the Belgian author Hugo Claus published in 1983. Arguably Claus' best-known work, the novel was translated into English by Arnold J. Pomerans in 1994. It was also made into a mini-series the same year.
The novel is classified as bildungsroman and comprises two parts:
"The Sorrow"; 27 numbered chapters with titles
"of Belgium"; text not divided in chapters.
It tells the story of the childhood and youth of Louis Seynaeve in the Flemish village of Walle from 1939 to 1947, coinciding with the period Second World War, the German occupation of Belgium, and its aftermath.