Two young boys meet at a summer camp in Belgium, and their lives intersect at intervals until they become middle-aged. One of the boys becomes a criminal, an international drug smuggler, the other a mild-mannered geologist. I can't say too much more about the plot, but this psychological thriller ended on a very surprising note. Recommended. ( )

Brilliantly crafted, jigsaw thriller.

It starts off so average too, a guy whose lost everything making a play for small time riches, a geology teacher turned drug mule. We start by following him as he gears up for the drop, his fears of how bad it could get, his amateur plans and then BAM, we switch to another narrator, a different time and the nature of the story starts to become clear. This is not your average thriller, it’s an artfully and carefully constructed musing on fate, of the tragedy of what might have been, of the soul destroying aspect of 'doing your duty'. Gripping and powerful as we start to burrow down in time we see glimpses of story, until near it becomes clear and you read it desperately wishing that it wasn't the truth. Don't get me wrong this is not about 1 mans fall into crime, it's …. well that would be rather too large a spoiler wouldn’t it?

It's a short book, more novella but well worth seeking out. Highly recommended, especially to anyone interested in thrillers or story craft will lap this up. ( )

Tegen de achtergrond van een onverkwikkelijke drugszaak, is dit het klassieke verhaal van twee onvervulde levens, van een liefde die in de kiem wordt gesmoord door de lompheid van een veertienjarige ergens op een jeugdkamp in België in de jaren zeventig.
Dit laatste besef je pas aan het einde van het boek, wanneer je een reis hebt gemaakt naar Azië via het post-hippie tijdperk in Amsterdam en en passant nog eens het verhaal krijgt van een middle class gezin in Boston, Massachussets
In de uitgeklede, filmische stijl die Tim Krabbé zo eigen is, voel je je meer observator dan betrokken partij. Maar dat houdt niet tegen dat het verhaal en de personages langzaam onder je huid gaan kruipen en de filosofische mokerslag op het einde van het boek doen je beseffen:life's a bitch and then you die! Pure klasse. ( )

Een vijftal verhaallijnen, boeiend genoeg om afzonderlijk te lezen en die uiteindelijk tezamen een boeiend geheel gaan vormen. Gemiste kansen, onvervulde wensen en illusies en de smokkel van heroïne. Gewone mensen worden in -voor hen- ongewone situaties gebracht.

Een roman die vrijwel perfect is gecomponeerd en waarvan de thema’s zich in een bespreking niet moeten laten vertellen.

Gewoon een prachtig geschreven werk. ( )

The Cave by Dutch novelist Tim Krabbe is one of the thriftiest thrillers I’ve read in a long time. Sparse to the point of skeletal, it charts the parasitic and dangerous relationship between two childhood friends, Axel and Egon. It’s a big story full of betrayal, deceit, jealousy, and longing—enough material for a thick, mini-series-ready bestseller you might read on a long plane ride. But Krabbe has slimmed it down to a minimalist parable crammed into 152 pages.
The Cave opens with the adult Egon traveling to a Southeast Asia city on a courier mission. He’s delivering a suitcase for the enigmatic Axel to a contact he’s certain will lead to his death.
The first chapter is sharp as a stiletto, piercing us with suspense as Egon counts the minutes to his fate. Krabbe, author of The Golden Egg (which was turned into the movie The Vanishing), writes with the grim, precise style of film noir classics. It’s easy to picture Egon in black and white, walking toward his rendezvous, sweaty fingers gripping the handle of his suitcase.
After that nail-chewing opening, Krabbe traces the story back to the start of the two men’s relationship when they met as teenagers at a youth camp in Belgium. As much as Egon is insecure and careful, Axel is a fearless creature, bulldogging his way through life.
That summer at youth camp, Axel introduces Egon to the finer things in life: drugs, alcohol and sex. Egon finds himself falling all too easily under “the peculiar authority of (Axel’s) charm.â€? It’s a charm that will hold sway for the rest of Egon’s life as he pursues a career as a geologist, gets married and unsuccessfully tries to avoid tangling with his boyhood Mephistopheles. Axel keeps turning up like a bad penny as he rises in the Dutch drug-running underworld, eventually spinning Egon into his web. Axel’s philosophy is simple: “Make people want what you want them to want. Intimidation. Acting like you’re running the show.â€?
Don’t be surprised if you find yourself thinking of Hitchcock’s film Strangers on a Train while turning the pages of The Cave. But, just as cinema’s Master of Suspense sometimes came off as chilly and mechanical, Krabbe’s cold, distant style never lets readers get fully engaged in the characters. Like Axel himself, the author holds us at arm’s length with an all-too-brisk pace. Sure, it’s the nature of the parable, but I wanted more material so I could slip under Egon’s skin, if not Axel’s. Entire decades are covered in the stroke of a paragraph. While there are some nifty plot twists at the climax, the detached tone prevents us from feeling the tragedy as deeply as we could.
This is one dark, cold Cave indeed. ( )