The Uncountables
‘The Uncountables’ is a novel which brings to life the consequences of the warped relationship between poor and rich countries, in this case a Europe languishing in its wealth, and which brings home the possible consequences of an unstoppable stream of refugees.
The book opens with a refugee trying to enter Europe after a boat crossing. The perspective then switches to the inhabitants of a sleepy, homely Flemish village who, one morning, wake up to find refugees sheltering on their porches and in their garden sheds. The stream of refugees swells to a flood and brings huge problems with it. Normal life grinds to a halt, social amenities are disrupted, life reverts to the primitive. It is every man for himself.
Not only an unyielding novel for a wide public but equally a necessary bookDe Standaard
Peeters makes clear that this invasion of refugees is going on everywhere in the West, and he questions our Western assumptions of abundance and comfort.
‘The Uncountables’ shows that a continued refusal to recognise the problem will only make the consequences both more unpredictable and inconceivable. The novel engages with an all-too-real problem in a strongly allegorical way which confronts the reader with his own existence.
A story that reads like a poetically written prophecy of doomHet Parool
