GIRL OUT OF PLACE

by Syl Van Duyn ; translated by Ernestine Hoegen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 2020

A 15-year-old girl comes of age in the Dutch East Indies as World War II ends in this YA romance loosely based on a true story.

Van Duyn credits Nora Valk as the inspiration for this novel about a teenager’s struggles. Nell Arends is interned in 1942 with family members on Java after the Japanese invade the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Her father, a pilot for the Dutch East Indies army, is imprisoned in Japan. Nell chronicles her arduous journey, beginning with her release from a jungle prison camp following the Japanese surrender in 1945. Her mother now dead, she travels with her aunt to the Javanese city of Jogjakarta. Then, while the Indonesians revolt to overthrow Dutch colonial rule, the two escape by ship to a Singapore refugee camp. Nell’s father reappears and makes some unilateral decisions—first settling her in a beach resort near Sydney, Australia; next, in a girls boarding school far from Sydney and her friends; and then in the Netherlands. He remains on Java, quietly marrying a woman and tacitly wanting Nell out of the way. Despite the incredible events occurring, Nell’s constant obsession is with Tim Thissen, a boy she meets briefly on a harrowing transport while fleeing internment. The author presents an extraordinary survival story with rich details. But the book’s opening sentence, “I was fifteen and I had never kissed a boy,” epitomizes the focus of a tale rife with dramatic potential. Whatever is happening around her—war, her mother’s death, violent revolution—Nell remains a typical teenager. While waiting a few hours for a train after escaping the prison camp, she whines: “I’d rather be standing in line in the camp waiting for my food!” After arriving safely in Singapore, she complains that “now I wish I were back on board the ship.” Reunited with her father, who likely was tortured in a Japanese prison camp, she exhibits little compassion for his attempts to restart his life. As a narrator, the infatuated Nell lacks perspective, and the action often meanders. Translated from the Dutch by Hoegen, the novel abounds with awkward phrasing: “I’m fifteen now and so are you, of course, but you’ve changed so much”; “After years, I meet you in the safe house and now I’m sharing the same cabin with you.”

A remarkable tale of youthful resilience overshadowed by an abundance of teenage angst.

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-912430-43-7

Page Count: 200

Publisher: Aurora Metro Books

Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2020

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE