Writers commenting on the black pages in their country's  history. How to deal with the painful questions of the past. Is it the task of writers to investigate them? And if so, are they doing a good job? Isn't forgetting and starting again with a clean slate more effective in order to get ahead? Hanaan as-Sjaykh wrote about the civil war in Lebanon, Alberto Manguel did the same about the dirty war in Argentina while Hans Goedkoop in his book De laatste man (The Last Man) sheds a new light on the Dutch East Indies of the police actions in  the late 1940s. David Van Reybrouck talks to them. Musical intermezzo by Kenyan musician Ngwatilo Mawuyoo accompanied by Serigne Gueye and Mark Tuinstra. In English.

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