Tim Krabbe: The Cave

By MICHELE HEWITSON

In a Southeast Asian country, geologist Egon Wagter is a man with "drug runner" stamped on his forehead. He is posing as a tourist, on what he imagines is the last day of his life.

His life has been devoted to the study of fault lines. On a field trip to the La Roche caves in Belgium, he was introduced to the concept of the Geological Window: a fault plane between the limestone and a basalt layer, which was a hundred million years older. "A hole in time, a look at a past that was hidden everywhere but at this one little spot."

On that trip Egon meets Axel, who even as a 14-year-old exudes danger and charisma. Axel becomes a successful crime boss. Egon's adulthood is marked by a series of occasional meetings with Axel, who still fascinates him: Axel is Egon's "hole in time."

Egon plays by the rules, and loses. He is forced to turn to Axel to help him raise the money for a geological expedition which he thinks will save him. He agrees to smuggle drugs; he is about to lose again. The Cave has the tug of a nightmare: you're too frightened to wake up from it lest you leave a bit of yourself there for eternity. Or because you might wake up to find the reality is worse than any nightmare you've yet entered.

Bloomsbury

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