A man sits on a train and looks out the window. His long journey could have been a peaceful one. But instead of daydreaming or falling asleep, he gets increasingly nervous because while passing stations and villages he gets the impression people are telling each other something terrible. He doesn’t know what it is. He sees them talking, then opening their eyes widely - as if in fright. Some seem to shout at each other, hastily leavi...
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Caroline de Gruyter is a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC. She also writes columns for Foreign Policy and De Standaard. This piece is adapted from a recent column in NRC.