Postcards from No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers

At the moment we have on display in our library a wonderful travelling exhibition from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. It tells the story of Anne Frank and through her story and other personal narratives talks about human rights, various prejudises of our time and discrimination. The Anne Frank House and the Finnish Peace Education Institute co-operated in educating a group of Finnish youngsters to act as quides for their peers and this month we've had numerous school classes visiting the exhibition. So, I thought it fitting to read something relevant to the exhibition. I read Anne Frank's diary years ago, but did not feel I wanted to reread it at this point. However, Ana's post on a novel partly set in WWII Holland had caught my eye in January and luckily our library system had a copy. The novel was Postcard's from No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers.

Postcards from No Man's Land, the winner of the Carnegie Medal in 1999, tells two connected stories, one set during the last months of World War II and the other set in 1990s Amsterdam. In more contemporary story 17-year-old Jacob (Jack) Todd arrives in Amsterdam to learn more about his grandfather, a soldier who died in a nearby town during the war. In 1944 another teenager, a girl named Geertrui, meets a British soldier named Jacob Todd and helps him hide as the Brits retreat from the Germans.

I have read a fair share of novels and nonfiction about WW II, but this was my first book about resistance in Holland. I liked the story of Geertrui and the soldier Jacob, but found Jack's story even more interesting. Jack faces some big questions about who he is, about love, identity, life -and death- during his stay in Amsterdam and in my opinion Chambers manages extremely well in making his story believable and interesting. My only criticism is that the ending was almost too neat! :)

Ana mentions in her review that Postcards from No Man's Land includes a great representation of bisexuality. I wholeheartily agree with her. Actually, it is great to simply find a bisexual character in a novel, they come wide and far apart, but in Postcards from No Man's Land sexuality in all its forms is represented very matter of factly and without angst which I found refreshing.

Postcards from No Man's Land is a wonderful novel and I would hightly recommend you to go and find yourself a copy to read!