Bart van Es, The Cut Out Girl.

- Britain's prestigious Costa Book of the Year was awarded in 2018 to this delightful mix of historical narrative and fiction, a story of the horror of the rounding up of Dutch Jews under the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during WW2. It's brought terrifyingly to life through the experiences of a young Jewish girl, Lien, who as a four year old is placed by her parents into the care of a secret resistance organisation and subsequently hidden in the attics and small rooms of various families until the end of the war. Just months after she was given away her parents were murdered in Auschwitz.

- An older man, the author, uncovers the secret history of Lien and the town of Bennekom, the small town of his childhood. It was the centre of a resistance network, a haven for Jews under persecution, because of the courage of so many of its residents whose stories are inspiring. 

- But generally the Dutch were very cruel to their Jews, particularly after the war ended. The survivors of the concentration camps were not welcomed back. This reflects ‘...the curious split personality of the Dutch state’: equal rights under the Constitution v a ‘ruthless colonial power’, for example the massacres of innocent people on the island of Celebes in Indonesia after WW2. Over 4000 locals were slaughtered in cold blood.

- Van Es displays a tentativeness and anxiety about writing this book, which gives his story quite an affecting character. He interviews Lien numerous times but he worries that 'her memories are not as clear as I have made them’. His portraits of all the characters and of the Netherlands itself are sensitive and warm. He is a master of writing with a light touch, despite some of the horrific facts and details he uncovers.    

- Lien spends months with two families in particular - one she loves, the van Esses (the grandparents of the author) - and one she loathes, the Van Laars, where the uncle continually rapes her. 

- Lien's travails as she carries the weight of her childhood years through her adult life are sympathetically told. She has great difficulty in coming to terms with her experiences and fundamental identity. Two unhappy marriages and divorces and an attempted suicide define her, but finally, in her 80's, she finds peace. It's a wonderful, inspiring story.