A note prefacing this complex novel intimates that R.C. Hutchinson's interest was aroused originally by an article in a Dutch journal. The story of Johanna von Leezen was truly was she a criminal hiding a corrupt past under the pretence of amnesia, or were her anxieties and hallucinations caused by the shock of her experiences of war? Hutchinson was constrained to begin a search for 'Johanna'; and by degrees he learnt her strange and moving story.Johanna at Daybreak is a fictional exploration of the events which lead to the discovery of a middle aged woman in a Dutch refugee home, who could not recollect any account of her past, yet trembled at the thought of going to Germany. Her stupefying fear of arrest and trial for a capital offence inspired the authorities and doctors to get down to the root of her mystery. Little by little the truth comes out, half grey reality, half nightmare.Johanna at Daybreak , first published in 1969, is an at times dark, at times touching exploration of self-identity in the traumatic post-war reality.