Character - Ferdinand Bordewijk

Ferdinand Bordewijk's protagonist is an illegitimate child, raised in a Rotterdam slum by an independent, self-respecting, and austere mother. The boy's father is a force of nature—violent by design, grasping, and ruthless. The young man's rise is a quietly powerful saga. Bordewijk moves the reader because the facts in his novel—the facts of life—are arresting, pungent, and memorable.