Point of View

This novel is told from the point-of-view of two characters: Jacob and Geertrui. Jacob's chapters are told in past tense and third-person narration. This means that the unnamed narrator stays close to Jacob's point-of-view and gives the reader access into Jacob's thoughts and emotions while still referring to him in the third person. Geertrui's chapters are written in past tense, first-person narration taken directly from her personal memoirs. Geertrui's chapters are written from the perspective of an old woman looking back on her life, particularly the final months of the Second World War. The fact that Geertrui is dying greatly affects her perspective. In her chapters, she is recording the truth of her life before she dies, making the point-of-view completely, if not painfully, reliable. She holds nothing back from the reader - the good, the bad, or the ugly - because she wants to ensure...