ROOTS: A novel of the Dutch East Indies

War product this, and made to measure with true and tried ingredients, but with a setting that is -- so far -- novel enough, with some passion, some melodrama, not too overlaid with atmosphere. Maijn kills a Nazi and escapes to the plantation of his dead uncle on the island of Senang. He travels via Finland and Russia, meets and loses at the border, a young Roumanian refugee. Once on the island, he becomes absorbed in plantation life, in steps towards fortifying the island, in the strange Van Lear family, always waiting for the return of the heir who disappeared two years before. Maijn dreams of his true love, the lost Roumanian girl; Marie-Celeste believes herself in love with the lost Van Lear. Eventually, both loves are resolved -- and they are left free to love each other.