My father's war - Adriaan van Dis

Born in Holland shortly after the war, a young boy grows up an outsider in the midst of his family. Living in isolation among the sand dunes of Holland’s North Sea coast, he looks on as his mixed-race half-sisters are mocked for their ‘blue skin,’ endures a bizarre and brutal military training at his father’s hands, and wonders about the wartime hardships his family suffered at the hands of the Japanese, experiences his family are never willing to discuss.

Years later, the middle-aged son begins a quest into his family’s past in Indonesia, and the origins of his father’s strange mix of charm and cruelty. Despite his sisters’ denial and his mother’s evasiveness, he learns of the incredible endurance of his father, one of the few survivors of Japanese wartime torture, and begins finally to understand his family and their history. My Father’s War is a remarkable and powerful exploration of the impact of war and the legacy of empire on the lives of individuals, as well as an extraordinary examination of the relationship between a damaged father and a sensitive son.