The Boy Between Worlds
A Biography
Published on 1. August 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-5420-4009-9 (ISBN)
Description
From the Amazon Charts bestselling author of An American Princess comes the true story of an unconventional family divided by war and prejudice during WWII.
When they fell in love in 1928, Rika and Waldemar could not have been more different. She was a thirty-seven-year-old Dutch-born mother, estranged from her husband. He was her immigrant boarder, not yet twenty, and a wealthy Surinamese descendant of slaves. The child they have together, brown skinned and blue eyed, brings the couple great joy yet raises some eyebrows. Until the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands explodes their promising life.
What unfolds is more than the astonishing story of a love that prevailed over convention. It's also the quest of a young boy. Through the cruelty of World War II, he will fight for a connection between his father's South American birthplace and his mother's European traditions. Lost and displaced for much of his life, but with a legacy of resilience in his blood, he will struggle to find his place in the world.
Moving deftly between personal experience and the devastating machinations of war, The Boy Between Worlds is an unforgettable journey of hope, love, and courage in the face of humanity's darkest hour.
When they fell in love in 1928, Rika and Waldemar could not have been more different. She was a thirty-seven-year-old Dutch-born mother, estranged from her husband. He was her immigrant boarder, not yet twenty, and a wealthy Surinamese descendant of slaves. The child they have together, brown skinned and blue eyed, brings the couple great joy yet raises some eyebrows. Until the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands explodes their promising life.
What unfolds is more than the astonishing story of a love that prevailed over convention. It's also the quest of a young boy. Through the cruelty of World War II, he will fight for a connection between his father's South American birthplace and his mother's European traditions. Lost and displaced for much of his life, but with a legacy of resilience in his blood, he will struggle to find his place in the world.
Moving deftly between personal experience and the devastating machinations of war, The Boy Between Worlds is an unforgettable journey of hope, love, and courage in the face of humanity's darkest hour.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Seattle
United States
Publishing group
Amazon Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 208 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
279 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5420-4009-9 (9781542040099)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Annejet van der Zijl is one of the best-known and most widely read literary nonfiction writers in the Netherlands. In addition to other works, she has written biographies of Dutch children's author Annie M. G. Schmidt; Prince Bernhard, the husband of former Dutch queen Juliana; and Gerard Heineken, the founder of the famous beer empire. Her nonfiction has been awarded the M. J. Brusse Prize for the best work of journalism and has been nominated for the Golden Owl and the AKO Literature Prize. She is the author of An American Princess, which spent more than fifteen weeks at the top of the national bestseller list in the Netherlands and was short-listed for the Libris History Prize. In 2012, she was awarded the Golden Quill for her entire oeuvre.
About the Translator
Kristen Gehrman is from Charleston, South Carolina, and studied linguistics and literary translation at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. She now lives in The Hague, where in addition to her work as a literary translator, she teaches academic writing and translation. While translating The Boy Between Worlds, she enjoyed biking around The Hague and Scheveningen and visiting the places where Rika and Waldemar had been.
About the Translator
Kristen Gehrman is from Charleston, South Carolina, and studied linguistics and literary translation at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. She now lives in The Hague, where in addition to her work as a literary translator, she teaches academic writing and translation. While translating The Boy Between Worlds, she enjoyed biking around The Hague and Scheveningen and visiting the places where Rika and Waldemar had been.