"Blending history on an epic scale with folklore and with the most deeply human realism, Our Narrow Hiding Places is a war story—and a love story—as powerful in its particulars as in its sweep. Jansma sets his sights on the largest of historical concerns, which have (as history tends to) become current again: war as a force of inhumanity, the many smaller brutalities that occur in its wake, and the many unrecorded generosities and acts of heroism, too. This novel is a magnificent anthem to the magic of survival in all its forms." — Clare Beams, author of The Illness Lesson and The Garden
“Our Narrow Hiding Places is a masterpiece, a luminous and gorgeously written story that explores the power and complexity of memory, offering a profound meditation on the resilience of the human spirit and the intimate spaces where family secrets are harbored. This is a novel I’ll be returning to again and again in the years to come, a novel I’ll be recommending to everyone I know.” — Andrew Porter, author of The Disappeared
“A vivid, devastating account of Holland's Hunger Winter and a complex, compassionate tale of human resilience. The reverberations of trauma through multiple generations is as much Kristopher Jansma’s subject here as is the endurance of family love. Our Narrow Hiding Places moves seamlessly between the beaches of wartime Holland and the present day beach towns of the Jersey Shore. It gives voice to the sibilant whispering of eels as believably as it depicts a young man's matter-of-fact recollections of a troubled father. A multi-layered novel about memory, community, suffering, and tenacity, told with imagination and grace.” — Alice McDermott, author of Absolution and The Ninth Hour
"Our Narrow Hiding Places is both expansive and intimate, plunging us into Holland's Hunger Winter through the eyes of an unforgettable young girl determined to survive. Jansma masterfully weaves past and present to show us how trauma swims down bloodlines as do the folktales and stories that remind us of where we come from and who we are. A breathtaking epic that reverberates with hope." — Tania James, author of Loot
"Our Narrow Hiding Places is a feat of literary architecture: a masterfully constructed container for some of the most gorgeous and deeply humane writing that I've read in a long time. Kristopher Jansma is a writer at the peak of his powers and this novel is a triumph." — Adam Wilson, author of Sensation Machines
“Never losing hope as its focus, Our Narrow Hiding Places is evidence of the many meanings of survival, and how, even in the midst of chaos, our capacity for courage persists. How we must always fight to preserve the best parts of ourselves, especially in the face of indignity. I can't think of a novel better suited to the current historical moment, in which humanity, empathy, and giving a damn are more needed than ever before. Read this, learn, then act.” — Mateo Askaripour, author of Black Buck
"A hauntingly beautiful intergenerational novel, Our Narrow Hiding Places infuses the darkest of history with an aching, luminous sense of magic and mystery. An extraordinary achievement." — Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk
“Jansma shows the impact of generational trauma in one family. Book clubs and readers of World War II fiction will enjoy his perceptive take on survival, family, and starting over.” — Library Journal
“Jansma (Why We Came to the City) seamlessly interweaves past and present in this immersive dual narrative of a girl in German-occupied Holland during WWII and her American grandson. . . A satisfying blend of wartime and family drama.” — Publishers Weekly
“Delicate, haunting . . . . Jansma's glimpses into a horrific situation through the eyes of a child make what could have been a familiar story seem luminously strange.” — Booklist
"The searing intimacy of Jansma's wartime chapters. . . document the shifts in Mieke's family life from mildly interrupted routing to desperate struggle for survival." — New York Times Book Review
05/01/2024
Eighty-year-old Mieke Geborn agrees to help a friend translate a book from Dutch (Mieke's native language), having learned that its author was a prisoner at the same concentration camp where Mieke's father-in-law is presumed to have died. Soon, Mieke is recalling her childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland, with memories sparked by the book and a visit from her grandson Will. After the bombing of Rotterdam in 1940, Mieke's father's professor friend and his large family came to stay with Mieke's. Then the Nazis came for the professor, and he fled, never to be seen again by his family. Circumstances and restrictions worsened, and Mieke and her family struggled to survive, especially once the Hunger Winter set in in 1944. Chapters from the book Mieke is translating are interspersed between interludes set in the present and Mieke's memories of the Nazi occupation. The chapters from the Dutch book are narrated by eels, whose long lives make them uniquely suited to comment on humanity. VERDICT Jansma (Why We Came to the City) shows the impact of generational trauma in one family. Book clubs and readers of World War II fiction will enjoy his perceptive take on survival, family, and starting over.—Lynnanne Pearson
2024-06-15
The physical suffering and psychological trauma inflicted on the Dutch people during the Nazi occupation influences the survivors and subsequent generations.
Drawing on his own family history, Jansma’s new novel spans multiple generations of a New Jersey clan with Dutch origins. At its center is matriarch Mieke Geborn, a baker’s daughter who endured World War II in the Hague and offers a child’s-eye view of the German occupation, as well as the massively destructive V2 bombs fired at Britain from the town’s seashore. Her family takes in Professor Willem Naaktgeboren, an old friend of her father’s, along with his wife and children, who were bombed out of their Rotterdam home. Naaktgeboren’s son, Rob, becomes Mieke’s constant companion and, much later, her husband. A none-too-surprising cast of characters shares their apartment building, including Jewish and gay neighbors and a keen Nazi sympathizer. This historic narrative alternates with a more contemporary account of Mieke (now 80) in America, which has been her home for 50 years. Her grandson, Will, comes to visit, and there are reminiscences about Will’s father’s mental health issues, as well as considerations of some recent stresses on Will himself. A third element, a series of whimsical/philosophical/mythical chapters voiced by eels, recounts fairy stories and historical aspects of Dutch life. The eels may have the best lines. Other than the grimly vivid description of near-starvation during the Hunger Winter of 1944-45, there’s a lack of intensity to both the wartime and contemporary storylines, connected though they are by themes of lost fathers, heritage, and mental burdens.
An oblique take on a dark episode of wartime endurance.
