It was the prologue
that made me decide to review this recently published novel.
It
begins: “A long time before Bas died, we had a pretend argument
about whose fault it was that he’d fallen in love with me.”
The story opens in
occupied Holland in 1943, in Amsterdam. Clever, because I immediately
think of Anne Frank and that steep, claustrophobic climb to her
hidden attic. So I fear for Hanneke, the protagonist, Hanneke is a
finder. She used to find coffee and chocolate. Now she finds and
sells extra potatoes and meat to the wealthy people of Amsterdam.
One day, she’s asked to find a person.
‘‘The missing
girl is Jewish,’ Mrs Janssen says. ‘ I want you to find her
before the Nazis do.’
Hanneke can’t refuse
because of her own grief about Bas, who died as the Germans invaded.
Now I’m ready to read non-stop. ‘Why and how did Bas die? Who
is this Jewish girl called Mirjam, who was wearing a blue coat when
last seen? And how on earth will Hanneke find her in an occupied
city, before she can be transported to a concentration camp - even if
she wants to? The tension is heightened by the fact that that almost
three quarters of the Jewish population of Holland died during the
war, so I know that Mirjam’s chances of survival are slim.
There are ghosts
everywhere in Hanneke’s quest: Bas’s ghost as his older, serious
and less engaging brother, Ollie, helps Hanneke; the ghosts of the
already transported Jews; the ghost of a once happy city. The rare
flashbacks with Bas are sensitive and tense – the first time I
saw Bas; the last time I saw Bas etc.
Then just as I’m
settling into the quest (which is condensed into a few days), Hesse
presents me with another one. Half-way through the novel, Hanneke
says: ‘I’m to blame for Bas’s death. I only got him killed.’ I’m on full alert as
I race to the end.
There are so many
layers to this book: history, mystery, war, duty, danger, pretending
in order to stay safe, morality in war. Ollie is a member of the
resistance, but when he questions helping Mirjam. Hanneke quickly
asks: ‘Ollie, if the good you’re working so hard for is one
that won’t work to rescue a fifteen-year old girl, then is it worth
it anyway?’
There are as many
twists and turns as the old city centre, but Hesse never leaves her
reader behind. The Girl in the Blue Coat a sensitive and
tender book that leaves nothing untold about what it’s like to be
on the run in an occupied city. Hesse herself calls it “ the
story of small betrayals in the middle of a big war.”
The best advice I can
give you before you read this book is Hanneke’s own thought on page
299: “Nothing in this war is what it seems.”
Pauline Francis
www.paulinefrancis.co.uk
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