Only a few people know that there was a small group of Dutch soldiers that had to carry out a physically and mentally challenging task for the Identification Service between 1951 and 1972. A war after the war. They had to dig up the corpses of fallen soldiers, collect them, store them, identify them and convey them to their families.

Andreas Oosthoek was one of them. In the partially autobiographical Fireland he tells about his years in the controversial Identification Service unit. An unknown chapter of Dutch history. A loose affiliation of ‘dreamers and thinkers, stranded students and thugs’, having to deal with the aftermath of the Second World War, condemned to be together. They are confronted with death on a daily basis. The dead are young men of their own age and they carry the scars of retribution, murder and treason. Unit 402 has the task to label the anonymous and bring them home. So they can cross the German border with trumpets and waving flags.

Fireland features the twenty-three year old commander Alva, a rough man with a soft spot. His ‘troops’ have a mascotte, Krakau the Crow, and a handful of bizarre rituals. They share the good and the bad and sometimes they border on insanity, without any help, care, or aftercare. They are, like Alva says, ‘protagonists in an anti-war movie’. Fireland is also the story of a German officer who is killed in the forgotten “Battle for the Schelde”. The story of British commando’s, accused of brutal murders. And the story of a boy from Cologne who is still searching for his father. This fierce and feared commander was shot in the dunes by his own men.

Andreas Oosthoek tells the story of these young men vividly, with moving imagery and a keen eye for details. The men are confronted with the horrors of war, after the war has ended. They try to remain sane so that at some point after their time in the service has ended they will be able to lead a normal life again.

Fireland is actually all sorts of things in one: a thrilling boy’s book, a romance, a war documentary with slapstick-elements and a homage to the landscape of Zeeland. The question now is, after these two extraordinary novels about a farmer’s son from Zeeland, if Oosthoek has any more treats up his sleeve. – NRC Handelsblad