Girl out of Place

by Syl van Duyn, Ernestine Hoegen (Translator), Cheryl Robson (Editor)

Overview

A coming-of-age story set during the liberation of the Dutch East Indies.

At the end of the war, Nell is released from a Japanese internment camp in Java. While searching for her father in the chaos, she meets Tim, a young man who is looking for his family too.

Nell’s journey takes her first to Singapore then to a new life and new friends in Sydney, Australia. But although Tim may well be the love of her life, her father puts her on a passenger liner bound for the Netherlands. Will Nell really be able to settle in a country she’s never known – and will she ever see Tim again?

Based on the true story of Nora Valk, this is an exciting tale of courage and friendship, hope and determination, about the search for love and a place to finally call home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912430437
Publisher:	Aurora Metro Books
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	15 - 17 Years

About the Author

Syl van Duyn is author of four Dutch language children’s books (‘Hallo Aarde, Hier Maan’ (2001), ‘Mijn Zus is een Flussemus’ (2002), ‘Angels’ (2008) and ‘Op zoek naar jou’ (2015)), as well as an adult non-fiction book based on the columns she wrote for the Dutch magazine Margriet (‘Een kwetsbaar bestaan’ (2001)). She works for the Dutch broadcasting network VPRO, selecting and purchasing documentaries, and lives in Amsterdam.

Ernestine Hoegen worked as a public prosecutor before turning to writing, translating and editing full-time in 2017. Her biography of Dutchwoman Mieke Bouman (Unieboek | Spectrum) was published in 2019. She lives near Arnhem.

Cheryl Robson has edited over 50 titles including, fiction, non-fiction and YA Fiction. Her edited titles were nominated five times for the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in translation in the UK. In 2019, she was nominated for the itv National Diversity award- Lifetime Achievement category.

Editorial Reviews

2020-09-20
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.

Kirkus Reviews