"The Woman who Fed the Dogs" by Kristien Hemmerechts

I read the original Dutch version, called De vrouw die de honden eten gaf. The English edition is translated from the Dutch by Paul Vincent. I picked up this book because of World Editions' 'Read the World A to Z' series. I like the project and would love to eventually read all entries as they get published. When I saw that B would be for Belgium, I was excited to see what book they'd picked. But when I found out it would be this title, my heart dropped. I thought: really, this one, of all the literature out there, it will be this one? This is a fictional book, but it's based on the real case of Marc Dutroux. I don't think there's anyone in Belgium who's not familiar with the name. He's serving life in prison for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a multiple young girls. This was a massive case in the 90s, and a cultural shift too. I was too young back then to experience it consciously, but I was old enough to see how it changed everyone's sense of safety. As young girls we were…