Claus, Hugo

(Belgian, 1929– )

Born in Bruges, Claus held a variety of jobs before becoming a full-time writer in the 1950s. Among Belgium's most respected novelists, he is also a distinguished playwright and poet. Only two of his novels are available in English. Begin with Sister of Earth (1950), which captures the bleak mood of Belgium in the immediate post-war years in its story of incestuous love in a Flemish farming family. The Sorrow of Belgium (1983) is a compelling episodic account of a young man's growth to adolescence during the Nazi occupation. He joins the Hitler Youth, but becomes disaffected and views the hypocrisy of his collaborating neighbours with alienated detachment.

Knut Hamsun, Jean-Paul Sartre  DH