The Assault

The Assault (original title in Dutch: De Aanslag) is a 1982 novel by Dutch author Harry Mulisch about the Second World War. It deals with the consequences for the lone survivor of a Nazi retaliation on an innocent family after a collaborator named Fake Ploeg is found killed outside their home.

The novel takes readers on the journey through the main character, Anton's, life. Anton struggles through the book to accept his traumatic memories from the book. In the beginning Anton's way of dealing with his tragic past is by suppressing all his memories of them, and that night. However just as he begins to forget, fate steps in, and challenges him to unearth what really happened all those years ago. Slowly, as he pieces together what happened that night, he begins to face and accept his past as a part of him. The theme of the novel is the development of the past into the present, and heading into the yet to be determined future as is shown in the prologue by a man walking backwards to push a boat forwards. Recurring motifs and symbols include a symbolon representing Anton piecing his life back together, Rocks depict hatred and unhappiness, and a recurrent theme of darkness and light. The dark moments represent Anton's past which carry negative connotations, and the light represents his future and the prospect of discovery and enlightenment.

A subcutaneous underlining of the plot is random truths and irony of "what are the chances that...", an example being that Anton later meets at a funeral of his father in law's friend, the man who murdered Fake Ploeg. Fake Ploeg's murder led to the arrest and execution of Anton's parents, the death of his brother and the torching of his childhood home.

The novel ends with the discovery of truth, that Anton's family died instead of the family of refugees that lived hidden in the neighbour's house and of whom nobody knew.