The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old

The novel is written in the form of diary entries by one of the residents of a nursing home. It is a subtle reflection of modern society— a collision of eras.

The novel is a diary of an 83-year-old resident of a nursing home. The main entertainment here is television and group games; the main competition is who has more illnesses and tumors; the main intrigue is what will be on the menu for dinner and who will die first. And the main enemy is the 42-year-old director, Mrs. Stelwagen, who has worked in the nursing home for only a year and a half, but has already managed to bring the place to absolute order. Everything is regulated—from the temperature in the rooms, very low and not suitable for everyone, to the time of playing Bingo, about which each resident has their own opinion. And after a few fish die in the aquarium, she decides it was sabotage and installs total surveillance by placing cameras in the facility. But the residents of the home—the last representatives of the human race who survived the Second World War—are not ready to surrender so easily.