Louis Paul Boon (1912-1979) started life as a house painter but went on to become the author of a large and rich oeuvre which spans several genres. His work ranges from the compelling historical epics he composed later in his life to his sharp, witty work as a newspaper columnist and his tongue-in-cheek scabrous novels. Despite the merits of all these works, there is one book that stands out above the rest: Chapel Road.

In Minuet , a man works eight hours a day in the refrigerated basement of a factory. There he adjusts the temperature and has little more to do than open or close a valve occasionally. In this polar world he is accompanied only by his own fears and thoughts, and for hours on end he converses with himself. Once he returns home to his wife, he prefers to withdraw with his collection of newspaper clippings about brutal rapes, gruesome murders and other inhumanities.