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Summary
Summary
From a forgotten moment in history comes an inspiring novel about finding strength and courage in the most unimaginable places.
In turn-of-the-century South Africa, fourteen-year-old Lettie, her younger brother, and her mother are Dutch Afrikaner settlers who have been taken from their farm by British soldiers and are being held in a concentration camp. It is early in the Boer War, and Lettie's father, grandfather, and brother are off fighting the British as thousands of Afrikaner women and children are detained. The camps are cramped and disease ridden; the threat of illness and starvation are ever present. Determined to dictate their own fate, Lettie and her family give each other strength and hope as they fight to survive amid increasingly dire conditions.
Brave and defiant, Lettie finds comfort in memories of stargazing with her grandfather, in her plan to be a writer, and in surprising new friendships that will both nourish and challenge her. A beautiful testament to love, family, and sheer force of will, The Lost History of Stars was inspired by Dave Boling's grandfather's own experience as a soldier during the Boer War. Lettie is a figure of abiding grace, and her story is richly drawn and impossible to forget.
Author Notes
DAVE BOLING is a sports writer based in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of one previous novel, Guernica , which won the 2009 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award for fiction and was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. For more information, visit www.daveboling.com
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In his new novel, Boling tries to do for the Boer War what he did for the Spanish Civil War in his previous novel, Guernica, but with uneven dramatic results. The year is 1900 when 13-year-old Lettie, her siblings, and her mother are removed from their family farm in South Africa by British soldiers and taken to a concentration camp for Dutch settlers. Lettie's father, grandfather, and older brother are off fighting with a Boer commando. In the camp, deprivations are many and things are especially hard on the young children, many of whom succumb to various diseases. Lettie maintains her spirits by keeping a journal and by recalling her life on the farm, especially going out at night with her grandfather to watch the stars. She also slowly becomes friendly with a British soldier, Tommy Maples, who is sickened by the way his countrymen treat the Boers. He gives her a copy of David Copperfield and introduces Lettie to the solace of great literature. Nothing good, though, can come of this relationship, which ends on an unsurprisingly tragic note. While the author does a convincing job of portraying the cruelty of the British towards their Boer captives, as well as the perspective of the Boer warriors and their kin, there is a certain narrative predictability that prevents the story from landing fully. Lettie, though, in her resilient nature might remind readers of another young South African protagonist, Peekay of Bryce Courtenay's similarly inspiring The Power of One. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Think of concentration camps, and the mind goes to WWII, but Boling dramatizes their presence in South Africa's Second Boer War (1899-1902). Operated by the British, the camps claimed the lives of 27,000 Boers, a heartrending 22,000 of them children. It is in one such camp that 14-year-old Lettie and her Boer family find themselves after the British destroy their farm. The camp conditions are deplorable and dehumanizing, each day presenting a new horror. But then Lettie meets a young British soldier named Tommy, and, though it's forbidden, they gradually become friends, but what good can come of that? Meanwhile, vicissitudes continue: Lettie's little sister dies while her younger brother withdraws into himself. Will things ever be the same, even when the war ends, as it must? Boling provides context for his setting-rich story by employing flashbacks that, though informative, tend to impede the momentum of the plot. But, nevertheless, his informative and illuminating story is heartfelt and deeply affecting in its dramatization of a historic episode too little known here.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2017 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
In this title set at the turn of the 19th century in South Africa, Grandpa "Oupa" Gideon sneaks Lettie Venter outside at night to study the constellations before he goes away. Soon the Venter women and children, who are Dutch, will watch as the British army burns their farm to the ground and relocates them to a concentration camp while their men fight in the Second Boer War for South African land, diamonds, and gold. Once Lettie shared with her grandfather a dream of becoming a sea captain. "Don't be silly" was his reply. But as 14-year-old Lettie comes of age, the old ways begin to change and being in charge becomes synonymous with growing up female. Although segregation separates Lettie from Bina, a servant and respected member of the family who's sent to a camp for black South Africans, Bina's advice lives on: "Deeds live." Lettie's mother adheres to Bina's counsel initially, teaching her children not to flinch even as a soldier holds his rifle against the neck of her youngest son. While hate consumes Lettie's mother, whose brother-in-law cooperated with the enemy to save his own life, Lettie decides that her deed will be forgiveness. A convincing plot twist unites the family. The novel was based on the story of Boling's grandfather during the war, and the author has dedicated the book to his family. -VERDICT Centering on the maturation of a relatable protagonist, this well-written work that spotlights a military conflict rarely covered in fiction is an excellent addition to most collections.-Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902, as witnessed by an adolescent Boer girl.If history is written by the victors, this may explain why so little is known about the travails of the Boers, Dutch colonists of South Africa, against the British. The novel begins when 13-year-old Lettie is turned out of her family's farmhouse along with her mother (known mostly as Moeder), younger sister, Cecelia, and brother, Willem. The farm is burned by British soldiers and the family's livestock is killed; such dispossessions are perpetrated again and again by the British, who aim to displace the Boer farmers to mine their territory for diamonds and gold. The Boer men have all left to fight. The women and children are herded into concentration camps and, in crowded, flimsy tents, are essentially left to starve and die of the diseases that flourish in close, unsanitary quarters. Moeder is incensed at Lettie's beloved aunt, Hannah, who, thanks to her husband Sarel's surrender, is housed in better conditions. The Boer mothers are leery of the camp hospital, resorting instead to folk remedies: these fail to save the life of Cecelia, who wastes away from malnutrition. Risking Moeder's censure, Lettie befriends a young British guard, Maples, who shows her kindness, including giving her a volume of Dickens and a prized potato, which is devoured by Lettie and her tent-mates. Volunteering at the hospital, Lettie works alongside Tante Hannah as a nurse's aide, as does Uncle Sarel, who takes on the grisliest tasks in atonement for his desertion. The novel sheds much-needed light on the deaths of thousands of Boer civilians in these camps. Boling (Guernica, 2008) occasionally lapses into sentimentality and overly reverent portrayals of the Boers as salt-of-the-earth Bible-thumpers, although in one instance Maples reminds Lettie that the Boers drove the Zulus out in order to become peaceable landowners. A valuable testament providing glimmers, however scant, of hope for humanity. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Journalist Boling (Guernica; The Undesirables) tells the harrowing story of 14-year-old Lettie, who is imprisoned with her Dutch Afrikaner family in a brutal British concentration camp during South Africa's Boer War. Boling's personal connection to this story of wartime suffering and perseverance (Boling is the grandson of a Boer War veteran) contributes to this powerful read about a period not often covered in historical fiction. (LJ 4/1/17) © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.