Een leeg huis, translated as An Empty House is another novel by the Dutch writer Marga Minco. Written and published after the Second World War, it describes how two young women cope with life after the war. During the last part of the war, the two Jewish girls, Sepha and Yona, were in hiding in the north of the Netherlands, and the first episode of the story is about their return to Amsterdam.

The idea is that they would be going home, but in Amsterdam they find many empty houses. Sepha moves in with her boyfriend, while Yona has no place to go. The story mainly follows the life of Sepha in three episodes, each moments in time. Yona also appears in each episode.

In each episode, Sepha is on the move. She cannot really settle anywhere, nor can she really settle with Mark. She has a place to stay, a house, but no home. She seems happy to follow her impulses. Yona is less fortunate. An unlucky fall into a canal during the first episode, has an eery echo with her fall out of a train, in the last episode. These two cases of falling leave you wondering whether they happened with intent or were they accidental.

The idea of "falling" as a motive and a link to coincidence and misfortune also plays an important role in Minco's novella De val. ( )

Uitgeleend Antonia Stoian 8 nov 2023