The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found: The Costa Book of the Year 2018

Product Information

Throughout the book the author has pointed out Lientje's existence during this lengthy period of concealment. It is true that the families who chose to participate in sheltering were often unselfish and kind, but clearly many traumatic events occurred along the way. I will not introduce the reason for the title- “The Cut Out Girl”, but one can view how appropriate and moving this is. As an adult Lien said as a result of her isolation she had stopped seeing the world. La protagonista Lien y su evolución ha sido para mi lo mejor del libro. Ella fue una de las niñas que tuvo que buscar refugio y gracias a ella conoceremos lo que vivió durante esos años. Cuando empecé a leer esta novela, no esperaba lo que me he encontrado, porque no es una historia normal, una novela contada sin más, es una historia real, no basada en hechos reales.

Lien was ultimately reunited with the van Eses, returning to live with them after the war. After a time, she stopped calling Mr and Mrs van Es 'Auntie and 'Uncle' and switched to 'Ma' and 'Pa'. This should have been the happy ending. Indeed, Bart van Es comments how the best possible conclusion for the story would have been at the point of Lien's wedding. She marries at the Portuguese synagogue and at the reception, she has a whole family around her. In a speech from one of her van Es family members, one of them jokes whether her new husband is good enough for 'our Lien'. Lien is theirs. And even one of her biological cousins, another Holocaust survivor, manages to be present. But this is not the end. While she may have shone with happiness that day, Lien struggled with depression and survivor's guilt. She was not alone in this; the cousin who attended her wedding later killed himself. Her loving new husband had also lived through the war in hiding but he had done so in the midst of his family so could not understand why Lien would dwell in the past. He could not fathom her trauma. The book described how she was taken from her family in late summer of 1942 by Mrs Heroma, known as Took (she and her husband were central to Nazi resistance) to live with Jans and Henk van Es who were the authors grandparents. A lot of Dutch families sheltered children as it was relatively easy to absorb them into their families. The van Esses were very kind to her and she felt happy there. There are some lovely letters she received from her family on her 9th birthday before they were put on the trains to the death camps. Sadly Lien had to be moved several times and not all of them happy such as the final place she stayed in Gelderland. Although they were not especially kind they did at least protect her and they didn’t give her up. It was at this time aged 11/12 she was repeated raped by the seemingly jolly uncle of the family. After the war Lien returned to the van Es family although in later years they became estranged. One of the most profound sections was where Lien had the courage to go to Auschwitz and there she had the bravery to read out a letter in English detailing what happened to her family members. Lo que este libro nos transmite es la generosidad de esas familias y el amor que les dieron a esos niños a los que escondieron.In the words of Maria Condo This one is not bringing me joy and I have read 50% of the book and that has taken me a week. I think it is time to part company. I struggle with giving up on a book as some books do turn around and am always afraid I will miss out by not finishing the read. Bart van Es tells the story of a young Jewish girl named Lientjie who was taken in during the War by his grandparents. He doesn't know too much about the story but is aware that at one point there was a falling out and they lost touch with her. This book tells the story of him first reaching out to Lientjie and then the process of discovering what had happened to her, his family, and why the falling out happened. This book is about a Jewish Dutch girl Lien and the various families who saved her following the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, in particular the van Es family. The ‘the cut out girl’ represents Lien but the title comes from a picture in a ‘poesie’ album she kept which was a scrapbook of poetry that people wrote in for her and about her - these were popular with girls at that time. Lien’s family were not especially religious and the author pointed out that it is really Hitler who made Lien Jewish following the invasion in May 1940. From 1941 similar rules to those implemented in Germany from 1935 (Nuremberg Laws) were enforced such as wearing the yellow star and Lien had to go to Jewish school. Prior to this her childhood had consisted of mixing happily with other children surrounded by a happy extended family and caring neighbours. There are some lovely pictures to illustrate this life that was to end so disastrously. The author ‘as’ the Audio-narrator didn’t have a talent for the job. It was very hard to stay interested when he had no other skill than simply reading the words he wrote. Professor van Es, of St Catherine's College and Oxford's English Faculty, talks to Arts Blog about the journey that led to the publication of his new book, The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found .

This is a detective story of sorts, constructed in such a way that the reader works through the clues (pictures, letters, official documents, personal testimony) along with the author. It begins with an uneasy and cautious meeting between van Es and the woman Lien - now in her 80s - and ends with a hopefulness and healing on both sides. Even though Lien had believed that she had both raked over and come to terms with the past, there were still gaps to fill, questions to answer and old wounds that needed lancing.Bart van Es treats this story with the respect and care it deserves even when he discovers things that I am sure would have been easier to hide and or/ignore. I absolutely loved the way he wove Lientjie's story in with the story of his research as well. I enjoyed seeing their friendship grow as the story progressed. The switching between present and past and Bart van Es trips to see many of the location Lientjie tells him about - really made the story come alive for me. I am not ashamed to say that I shed tears reading this book - the subject matter was not always easy to get though.