In Search of a Name: A Novel

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This spellbinding and intimate novel explores the burden of legacy as a young woman wrestles with discoveries that contradict her great-uncles supposed heroism during World War II.

D says that a name always fits in the end, that a name is like a leather shoe that forms itself to the foot.

But in my mind, its the other way around: a person grows into his name.

Marjolijn van Heemstra has heard about her great-uncles heroism for as long as she can remember. As a resistance fighter, he was the mastermind of a bombing operation that killed a Dutch man who collaborated with the Nazis, and later became a hero to everyone in the family.

So, when Marjolijns grandmother bestows her with her great-uncles signet ring requesting that she name her future son after him, Marjolijn cant say no. Now pregnant with her firstborn, she embarks on a quest to uncover the true story behind the myth of her late relative. Chasing leads from friends and family, and doing her own local research, Marolijn realizes that the audacious story she always heard is not as clear-cut as it was made out to be. As her belly grows, her doubts grow, toowas her uncle a hero or a criminal

Vivid, hypnotic, and profoundly moving, In Search of a Name explores war and its aftermath and how the stories we tell and the stories we are told always seem to exist somewhere between truth and fiction.

Reviews

A beautiful novel about the importance of myths and the necessity of unmasking them.Tommy Wieringa, author ofThese Are the Names

"Towards the end, the tension between the all-too-human urge to cover up evil and our longing for the honest truth becomes increasingly palpable. That is the true masterstroke of And His Name Is, making it not just a fascinating non-fiction book about the complex nature of heroism in wartime, but also an urgent work of literature about our relationship to the Second World War in particular, and to the past in general."NRC Next (5 stars)

"A stirring, electrifying story, packed with keen observations about myth and narrative." Trouw

Author Bio

The Dutch poet, novelist, and playwright Marjolijn van Heemstra holds a masters degree in religion. Her first poetry collection, If Moses Had Been More Persistent, won the Jo Peters Poetry Prize. She debuted as a novelist with The Last of the Aedemas. Her latest novel, In Search of a Name, was nominated for multiple national prizes and has been translated into nine languages. She currently writes for The Correspondent, Harpers Bazaar, and several newspapers.