If you told me this book was written in the last five years, instead of in 1954!!!! I would have believed you. Part of this could be attributed to the fact it is a new translation, but I still think the tone and subject matter feel so fresh and modern - but that just goes to show that women love women and have always loved women. Bea is closeted and quite uptight, enter Erica, a wild journalist who is, even for the time, up front about her desires. The two move in together as roommates, but their routine is disrupted by the imminent arrival of Nazis in Amsterdam. Erica, being half Jewish, is at risk, and Bea wants to help her flee to America but Erica is determined to stay in her home. It’s always interesting to read something set in the past but written when it was contemporary. Needless to say the fascism aspect felt a bit too close to home, politics being what it is at the moment. And yet even with the threat of fascism, people’s lives continue to unfurl, with all their petty dramas. Bea and Erica aren’t particularly likeable, but I don’t think they’re meant to be. Erica is thoughtless, Bea allows herself to be walked over. They’re not destined for a great romance, they’re just two women who act on their desires in different ways, things get messy, it’s just LIFE. It feels alive, which is a high compliment from me when it comes to classics, because I find so many of them stodgy and dry.