Love and Memory Amid the Ruins
At the turn of the century, Europe had been thrown into turmoil. For years, tensions had been escalating across much of the continent. These tensions were most pronounced in the Balkans, where several alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and other parties had existed for years. However, political instability, particularly in Bosnia, Serbia, and Herzegovina, threatened to undermine these arrangements. With the decline of the Ottoman Empire, other powers were looking to benefit. Russia considered itself a protector of Serbia and other Slavic states. Secretly seeking to gain control of northeastern Anatolia, Russia preferred that a weak Ottoman government control the Bosporus Strait rather than an ambitious Slavic power. This division among Russian policymakers contributed to regional instability. Meanwhile, Austrian statesmen viewed the Balkans as essential to the continued existence of their empire. They saw Serbian expansion as a direct threat.
Tensions further escalated when Austria-Hungary annexed the former Ottoman territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This gave rise to the 1908–1909 Bosnian Crisis. Coinciding with Bulgaria’s declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire, the annexation was denounced by the European powers. However, it was eventually accepted, as there was no consensus on how to resolve the situation. The crisis also signified Austria-Hungary’s refusal to cooperate with Russia in the Balkans while damaging diplomatic relations between Serbia and Italy. It all came to a head on June 28, 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were visiting Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, when they were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb nationalist. Princip was among the nationalists campaigning for an end to Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assassination of the Archduke ultimately became the catalyst for the Great War.
As hostilities spread from the Balkans to the rest of the continent, fault lines hidden from the naked eye were slowly exposed. For four years, the Central Powers, primarily Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, fought against the Allied Powers, comprised mainly of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States. The First World War ended with the defeat of the Central Powers, and the conflict would go down in history as one of the great watersheds of twentieth-century geopolitical history. Its conclusion brought about the dismantling of the great imperial dynasties in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, while also contributing to the gradual decolonization of other parts of the world. Meanwhile, the Bolshevik Revolution saw the demise of the Romanov dynasty. Its impact, however, extended far beyond the 1910s, as the destabilization of European society laid some of the groundwork for the Second World War.
And he feels admiration for her, and tells her so, and she laughs, shy and flattered, and lets him take his first photograph, a photo of her, just tell me how you want me, she says, standing in front of the romanticized battlefield, and he issues hesitant instructions, but whatever he says, she does meekly, and he understands why she loves photography, why he used to love it too, it creates the illusion of complete control, a few square inches of the world in which no disappointment, fear, or sorrow exists.
Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier
Due to advances in military technology and the horrors of trench warfare, the Great War saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. The war’s legacy is pervasive in literature, with numerous works exploring its human and psychological consequences. Among them is Anjet Daanje’s The Remembered Soldier. Originally published in Dutch in 2019 as De herinnerde soldaat, the story begins at Guislain Asylum, a psychiatric hospital in Ghent, Belgium, in 1922. Noon Merckem, a veteran of the First World War, has spent the past four years in the asylum without any memory of his identity. In December 1917, he was found wandering near the Flemish town of Merckem, wearing pieces of Flemish, French, and German uniforms. The name given to him refers to the time he was admitted to the asylum and the place where he was found. He has since become accustomed to life there. However, his psychiatrist, Dr. De Moor, places advertisements seeking women whose relatives went missing during the war.
Two women initially respond to the advertisement, but both leave disappointed when Noon proves not to be their missing husband. Noon also finds the visits disturbing, particularly because he is crushed by the women’s disappointment. When he refuses further meetings, Dr. De Moor has him restrained in a straitjacket. One day, a woman named Julienne appears and recognizes Noon as her husband, Amand Stephaan Coppens, a photographer who disappeared near Diksmuide in December 1917. Because of the length of time since he went missing, Amand is already presumed dead. Julienne, however, remains resolute in her search for her husband. For years, she has visited hospitals and asylums, refusing to abandon her search. Finally meeting Noon is a cathartic moment—a reward for her refusal to give up. Against medical advice, she whisks him home to Kortrijk. What is initially meant to be a one-month stay eventually becomes permanent.
Despite the unfamiliar environment, Noon—now Amand—slowly grows accustomed to his new life. The first few weeks of reintegrating into his former life prove challenging. Amand suffers from insomnia and nightmares in the studio where he sleeps alone. Even Gus and Rose, their children, are apprehensive and suspicious of him. One night, Amand sleepwalks and wakes up gripping Julienne’s throat. Julienne, however, provides the psychiatrist with an edited version of what happened. She also withholds details about his panic attacks and their struggles. With Amand’s corroboration, Dr. De Moor signs the discharge papers. Back home, Amand begins helping Julienne with their business. Slowly but surely, he settles into the rhythm of domestic life. He begins to feel safe and even cherished. However, at the back of his mind lingers the fear that Julienne might return him to the asylum once she realizes that she may have been mistaken.
With the passage of time, Amand finds greater comfort in the rhythm of domestic life. Still, he cannot remember anything except for occasional nightmares of life in the trenches and dreams of another life and another woman. Julienne, on the other hand, remains determined to make their reunion work. In whispered nightly installments, she patiently reconstructs their shared past. She tells him of their courtship and his mobilization. She even confides in him her great secret: that she was his mother’s housemaid before they married. Still, Amand remains unconvinced that he is who she claims he is. For one thing, he does not seem to possess the photographic knowledge Julienne insists he once had. Instead, he discovers that he is skilled at carpentry—a skill she claims he never possessed. More inconsistencies emerge as he immerses himself in his old-cum-new life. Is Amand really who Julienne claims he is? This mystery continues to haunt Noon/Amand.
And his eyes slide across the red-and-beige tiles to where she stands and cautiously climb their way upward, and her shoes are old but shined to a high gloss, and her dark-brown Sunday dress is plain, and her coat is not fashionable either, and her breathing is quick, and her pulse pounds visibly in her throat, and oh, she says, a strange animal noise that seems to have escaped her body in spite of her, and he looks her in the face, and never before has he seen so much genuine beaming happiness, it’s like crying and laughing and dreaming all at once, and she has forgotten everything and everyone around her, she knows only that he is there, and he had no idea one person could look at another that way, and he smiles at her, dumbfounded.
Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier
In The Remembered Soldier, Anjet Daanje explores the aftermath of the First World War. As is common in war literature, the novel captures the cost of war. The political upheavals were far-reaching, and their consequences were extensively explored in literature. The physical damage was equally widespread. As Daanje takes readers through 1920s Belgium, she paints an evocative portrait of a country ravaged by war. Its landscape has been deformed. Ruined houses and structures and misshapen fields riddle the country, which readers experience vicariously through Daanje’s descriptive prose. Beyond the political and physical consequences, the war has also devastated the economy, with Flanders experiencing widespread poverty and destitution. Julienne’s poverty does not escape Amand’s keen observation. Upon arriving at their house, he notices how little they have. Ironically, Julienne has kept Amand’s prewar suits in pristine condition.
The war’s human toll was equally horrific. By the time the war ended, roughly sixteen million people—soldiers and civilians alike—had perished. Millions more were wounded or displaced. Missing husbands and their desperate wives searching for them, mutilated survivors, and distraught widows tell the story of the war’s human toll. Unfortunately, most of their individual stories have been muted by history, reduced to mere statistics. After all, history is often shaped by those who emerge victorious. Daanje’s primary interest and literary inquiry extend beyond the war’s physical impact as she delves into its psychological dimension. Those who witnessed the war’s atrocities, both soldiers and civilians, suffered tremendous trauma, both physical and psychological. The physical damage suffered by Belgium, captured through Daanje’s literary lens, becomes a reflection of the collective trauma experienced by those who lived through and survived the war.
Through Amand/Noon, Daanje immerses readers in the psyche of a war-traumatized man who has lost his identity. The amnesia he suffers is a residue of the trauma he experienced during the war. Like many war veterans and survivors, he is afflicted by what we would now identify as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Daanje vividly captures the horrors of trauma. Amand suffers from nightmares and even panic attacks triggered by ordinary daily sounds, such as the rumble of a locomotive. When he experiences his first panic attack, Julienne calmly comforts him until it passes. Amand/Noon’s story captures how the effects of war persist long after the fighting has ended. Daanje also vividly portrays how the shadows of war pervade the domestic lives of individuals, families, and even generations. The characters are forced to navigate rebuilding, forgetting, and creating new lives amid the chaos. The war has reshaped marriages, families, livelihoods, and communities.
Memory and identity are then central themes in the story. Having lost his memory, Noon is faced with the daunting task of recovering his past. He has to rely on Julienne and those around him. Through their stories, his identity is reconstructed. This raises questions about how our identities are formed and who gets to define them. Daanje captures the fragility and unreliability of memory. It is mutable and even collaborative. The novel vividly demonstrates how stories, both true and false, can shape relationships and influence personal histories. Memory’s imperfections make it negotiable. The novel also highlights the lengths to which people go to commemorate the past. In the photography studio, Amand takes on a strange role. He puts on his uniform and poses with war widows who are willing to pay good money for a commemorative photograph with the miracle man. Julienne and Amand then participate in the commemoration of false pasts.
And he closes his eyes and tries to cling to the daydream and the pleasant feeling, ignoring the booming of the guns and the stench of chloride, lime, and rot, and he’s amazed how well it works, it’s almost as if he’s really holding her in his arms. Are you coming, she says, and he opens his eyes and she’s still there, he tries to conceal his surprise, and then, when he realizes that he had it just the wrong way around, that the daydream is the reality and how unbelievable that is, he kisses her again, making sure to fix the moment in his memory, pointing out to himself her warm living body in his embrace, the damp patches of sweat on her dress, the brim of her hat getting in the way, her curls tickling his cheek, her wet lips against his, and it doesn’t happen again, thank God, he forgets nothing.
Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier
A prize-winner in Daanje’s homeland, The Remembered Soldier is an expansive and absorbing work that delves into the stories of both the war and those who lived through it. Despite the widespread devastation it brought, signs of hope still break through the bleak landscape. Julienne and Amand’s relationship is initially shrouded in uncertainty, muddled by both truth and lies. Yet, as they navigate the fragility of memory and the chaos of the post-war years, they gradually forge a bond built on trust and intimacy. Love eventually arrives, and when it does, it is cathartic. Their journey captures how affection can develop slowly, with its foundations often laid on unstable ground and shaped by grief and hope. Their romance also highlights how love requires a suspension of disbelief and a willingness to trust the person we love, even when certainty is impossible.
Daanje’s long, flowing sentences mirror the uncertainty and complexity of their journey. After an awkward beginning, Julienne and Amand gradually open up to each other, moving through tentative intimacy, a honeymoon stage, and several false starts. The broad scope of the story allows Daanje to take her time, allowing their bond to develop organically. Her frequent use of the word “and” creates a sense of accumulation and continuity, while her unconventional incorporation of dialogue produces a stream of consciousness that places readers inside the racing thoughts of an injured, tormented, and confused mind. These elements are skillfully woven into a lush tapestry of lyrical and immersive prose. Daanje’s writing is deeply psychological but also deliberately ambiguous, reflecting the tortured mind of her protagonist. She denies readers a stable version of reality in much the same way that Amand is unable to access a stable version of his own past.
Longlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize, The Remembered Soldier is a multidimensional exploration of the atrocities of war. As Daanje leads readers through the cobbled streets of war-ravaged Belgium, she captures its physical toll. Missing husbands, desperate wives, and displaced families likewise underscore its human cost. Daanje delves deeper into its psychological consequences through the story of Amand and Julienne, two individuals scarred by the conflict who attempt to rebuild their lives amid the ruins. Their relationship mirrors the post-war world around them, with both struggling to recover from forces beyond their control. Just as Belgium slowly begins to rebuild, so too do they. What emerges between them is not a restoration of their prewar lives but the creation of something new from what remains.
The novel is also a compelling meditation on memory. Remembering is not necessarily the same as recovering the truth. Sometimes, the past survives only through fragments, photographs, stories, and the memories of others. These remnants can preserve what has been lost, but they can also distort it. Ultimately, The Remembered Soldier is a story about the persistence of life after catastrophe. Inspired by the true story of Anthelme Mangin, a French soldier who suffered from amnesia after the First World War, the novel is a stark reminder of the horrors of war and how its devastation reverberates long after the fighting has ended. Through Amand and Julienne, Daanje shows that even when the past remains fractured and uncertain, life can still find a way forward.
And near morning he is awakened by a buzzing noise, it’s coming from himself, he is humming, and he’s so happy, he can’t remember ever having felt anything of the kind, it’s grand and majestic and all-encompassing, like surveying and understanding every facet of life, as if he’s not a person but a god. He dreamed, he doesn’t know what exactly, about the war, he thinks, and that makes his happiness frightening, it forces itself on him as if assaulting him, and he tries to shake off the feeling, but he doesn’t really want it to go away, it repels him and at the same time he longs for it, the way he longs for her body, and maybe he didn’t dream about the war but about her, he can’t separate one from the other, as if the war springs from her, or she springs from the war.
Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier
Book Specs
Author: Anjet Daanje
Translator (from Dutch): David McKay
Publisher: New Vessel Press
Publishing Date: 2025 (2019)
No. of Pages: 562
Genre: Historical, Romance, Literary
Synopsis
Flanders 1922. After serving as a soldier in the Great War, Noon Merckem has lost his memory and lives in a psychiatric asylum. Countless women, responding to a newspaper ad, visit him there in the hope of finding their spouse who vanished in battle. One day a woman, Julienne, appears and recognizes Noon as her husband, the photographer Amand Coppens, and takes him home against medical advice. But their miraculous reunion doesn’t turn out the way that Julienne wants her envious friends to believe. Only gradually do the two grow close, and Amand’s biography is pieced together on the basis of Julienne’s stories about him. But how can he be certain that she’s telling the truth? In The Remembered Soldier, Anjet Daanje immerses us in the psyche of a war-traumatized man who has lost his identity. When Amand comes to doubt Julienne’s word, the reader is caught up in a riveting spiral of confusion that only the greatest of literature can achieve.
About the Author
Anjet Daanje was born Anjet den Boer in Wijster in 1965. She first began to write in high school. Her brother, Dieb, is a violist; they made films together. Daanje attended the University of Utrecht, studying mathematics. This did not preclude her from writing. At age 21, while still studying, she wrote her first novel, Pianomuziek in de regen (Piano Music in the Rain). She would publish seven more novels. Despite her extensive literary resume, Daanje remained a largely unknown writer. Her breakthrough came in 2019, following the publication of De herinnerde soldaat. The novel was longlisted for the Libris Literary Prize, one of Netherlands’ most prestigious literary prizes, in 2020. In 2025, the novel was translated into English as The Remembered Soldier, which was longlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize.
More success arrived with the publication of Het lied van ooieveaar en dromedaris in 2022. It won both the Libris Literature Prize and the Boekenbon prize, making it the first book to take the Netherlands’ two main literary awards. In 2026, it was translated into English as The Song of Stork and Dromedary. Daanje went on to receive the Constantijn Huygens prize for her body of work. Daanje also received international film awards, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, for the various movies for which she wrote the screenplays.
She picks up the blanket and folds it, you go wash and fetch the coal, she says, and like a well-oiled machine they resume their daily routine, it’s soothing, all the chores he could do with his eyes closed, fetching water for her, emptying the ashpan, filling the coal scuttle, lighting the stove, picking up the full bottle of milk from the sidewalk, it’s a safe world, this life he shares with her, but beneath it lies a nameless threat, whatever he does, thinks says, it’s there in the background, always, as if he glimpses it out of the corner of his eye and it moves again before he can look at it straight on, and the strange thing is somehow his fear always comes as a relief, his love for her was unknown territory, his fear is familiar.
Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier
