Breakwater is a beautiful, lyrical, literary novel that is both very accessible and very difficult to read.
The author has written: “In Breakwater I wanted to explore the idea of nurturing secrets for self-protection, and it is partly thanks to the writing of this book that I am now searching more for openness and candor, because not speaking can also make you lonely. So I try to fight the reticence in myself, stretching myself up and out, and in this way also reaching out more to others.”
A small prank triggers Emilia, and in parallel with torrential rains flooding the area, so too do memories of a traumatic event come flooding back into her mind.
This book is so, so good, but very painful, especially if you have been personally affected by some of the issues handled here. It should come with a trigger warning, with themes of rape and violence against women.
Even when a painful past is known about, it’s usually not spoken about. This book is broadly speaking about the long-term effects of sexual violence, and more specifically about isolation, about how the ‘not speaking’ can make you lonely. About how incredibly hard it is to speak up. About how being a victim makes you an untouchable, somehow revolting, to yourself and to others.
This book will make many readers sad, make them grieve, perhaps for themselves, perhaps for others they know, perhaps just for the innumerable anonymous victims everywhere.
It surprises-doesn’t-surprise-me how, despite how prevalent sexual violence is, there are so few novels that tackle it head on. We all remember #metoo but did you ever know anyone who used it to go public about their own experience? Nobody? No-one in the maybe hundreds of people you know, your social media friends and follows? How many came forward? Nobody? And yet it is estimated that more than 1 in 5 women have been sexually assaulted…
It’s ALL about the silence.
Lovely translation (from Dutch) by Liz Waters.
My thanks to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing an ARC. All my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, regardless of how I acquire the book.
#Breakwater #NetGalley
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Meanwhile, here’s an index of all my reviews.