The atmosphere in the bookshop was jovial and convivial, as I slowly climbed the long, but gentle, flights of stairs to the sixth floor. The buzzing of curious and regular visitors’ voices, the tinkling of ceramic cups, and the rustling of flipped pages echoed in my ears. I was the first in the queue-in a few minutes, behind me, there would have been dozens of anxious readers-and, beyond the glass door of the auditorium, I could see the frantic up-and-down pacing of assistants concerned to prepare the last things for the event.
Foyles Charing Cross was honoured to have Bart van Es, winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2018 with The cut out girl, a non-fiction novel about Lien, a Jewish girl, whom her parents had handed out during the Nazis occupation of Netherlands to the author’s grandparents. The extreme action allowed Lien to survive the war, but, when the nightmare ended, she found out that her parents hadn’t made it. Hannah Beckerman chaired the event. As the journalist and the author walked in, a respectful silent descended in the room, broken only by a thundering round of applause. The topics the speakers had to deal with weren’t the most light-hearted; World War II, Nazis occupation, racial persecution, and genocide. To break the ice, Beckerman kicked off the conversation by asking van Es how he had passed the gone week, after the victory of the prestigious prize. “It’s been an amazing week,” the author replied, his voice trembling slightly by the emotion. “I thought I had a good chance to win the competition, although, when the jury uttered my name, we were calm and relaxed.” The author marked we, as Lien, now a lively eight-five-year-old woman, attended the winner ceremony with him. “The idea came to my mind when my uncle died. This sad event made me think about my relatives’ generation. They were slowly fading away.” Van Es explained. “I’ve always known my grandparents were socially and politically active, and they had done something valuable during the terrible years of the war.” Van Es, however, had never talked about that moment of their life. He had tried, but they were very loath to deal with it, and the writer could only guess that something terrible had likely happened. “I also have to say that what is going on in the world nowadays-the worrying surge of right-wing movements-made this story more and more relevant,” van Es pointed out, before going on telling how he contacted Lien. “It wasn’t that difficult to track her back, as my mother still had her contact details.” The author met Lien for the first time in Holland at the Hague in 2014, and they initially didn’t talk about the past of the woman. It seemed something she wasn’t willing to tell him of, but she suddenly started opening up and trusting him. The narration wasn’t linear and constant as if she had blurred and forgotten some events of those years. Van Es immediately felt connected and absorbed in her world. “I think she didn’t want to talk about her experience because she thought she hadn’t been the only person to go through such a terrible happening,” he said. “After I published the book, I received numerous letters and emails from people who had similar stories to tell.” The intense research van Es realised changed the perception of his family. His grandparents were part of the resistance, and their bravery undoubtedly was massive. He sometimes felt frustrated and exasperated reading about the senseless mistakes they had accidentally made. Writing this book produced a huge responsibility towards the people who would read it. “As a teacher, I know that history is complex, and it’s not easy to build a fair story,” the writer said. “My grandparents were members of the Socialist Party, which meant they were extremely focused on resisting the invasion. I wanted to write a book that didn’t disappoint anybody, and I think I’ve accomplished my purpose.” During the preparation of his novel, van Es read and examined the story of his country and found out that the Netherlands hasn’t yet deal with its past. “The Dutch worked very hard to rebuild the country,” he admitted, “but they recovered by exploiting the colonies. Despite the occupation and the persecution of Jewish people, they caused a huge and abominable calamity in Indonesia in which thousands of people died.” The writer concluded the intense and emotive talk by explaining what he really struck him; there was an astounding and terrible detail that simply appeared before his eyes. “Dehumanisation,” van Es said. “The process of dehumanisation of the group they wanted to persecute shocked me the most. It didn’t happen quickly, but systematically. Initially with small changes in the laws, then it became more and more sophisticated, isolating, marginalising, and then physically interning the people who were Jewish.”
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