The Shadow Of The Mole
In February 1916, French infantrymen digging tunnels in the Argonne woods find a man, unconscious and covered in dirt. When he is unable to tell physicians who he is or where he came from, he is named the Mole. His doctor, Michel Denis, believes the man is an example of an emerging neurological theory: brain injury from trauma at the frontlines. The mystery deepens when the Mole begins writing in a grey notebook. While insisting he is irrevocably dead—and that someone he calls the Other is pulling his strings—the Mole pens details about a French diplomat, spies among the Prussian empire, and interactions with scientists on the cutting edge of discoveries about the workings of the human mind, including Freud’s teacher Dr. Josef Breuer. In trying to solve the enigma of the Mole, Denis must confront his own trauma—the recent loss of an arm because of shrapnel injuries.
This latest novel from Belgian/Flemish author Van Laerhoven is more than a standard, pulse-pounding page-turner. It takes time to appreciate underlying themes: the brutality of war, the effects of trauma on mind and heart as well as body, the recognition that WWI did not end with armistice but planted seeds of future conflict. It also takes time to share the observations of characters as they witness the tragedies of mental illness and learn how the events of their own past shape what they see and feel. Phenomenal.
