THE ASCENT, by Stefan Hertmans (Text Publishing, $38)
In the summer of 1979, Flemish writer and poet Stefan Hertmans learnt the dilapidated Belgian house he was about to buy had once been the home of a Nazi collaborator.
But Hertmans was already entranced by the damp ruin near Ghent’s Leie river. The notary’s mention of its World War II history
