TAMAR by Mal Peet

How nice it is that my first book review on this blog is a glowing one. I found Tamar in the Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" pamphlet and, upon noticing that it was about my favorite historical period (WWII), I snapped it up. I was intrigued because the story centered around a facet of the war I hadn't known much about--the Dutch Resistance. Once I opened the book, I read obsessively.

Tamar interweaves the story of two undercover operatives in occupied Holland in 1944 with the story of Tamar, the 15-year-old granddaughter (and namesake) of one of the Dutch officers half a century later as she seeks to unravel a mystery left by her grandfather before he committed suicide.

The backbone of the plot is the intense plight of the aforementioned spies, code-named Dart and Tamar (named for two rivers in England) over the course of several months' worth of spying in a small Nazi-occupied town. Tamar's base is the Maartens farm, where he carries on a romance with the farmer's granddaughter, Marijke. Dart, covering as a physician, is based at a nearby insane asylum populated by the few patients the Nazis hadn't relocated to concentration camps. Dart also falls in love with Marijke. Guided by the British from London, Dart and Tamar manage to stay one step ahead of the Germans as relay messages to and from London.

The other half of the story revolves around Tamar. fifty years later in London, England. Left with a box of WWII memorabilia after her grandfather's suicide, she resolves resolve the mystery of her grandfather's past. She enlists the help of a cousin, and the two set off on what seems to be a wild goose chase from London to Cornwall. Admittedly, I guessed the plot twist quite early in the novel, but that didn't detract from the story. The author skillfully kept the plot tight, with marvelous use of language and metaphor as he incrementally mounted the plot's tension. The denouement was the most stunning in my recent memory.

Tamar is billed as a Young Adult (YA) novel. In fact, it won Britain's Carnegie Medal for Young Adult Literature. All I can say is, YA has changed since my youth. The full title of the novel is Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal. All of the above are accounted for. Plenty of espionage, passion, and major betrayal. This IS NOT The Babysitters' Club, folks. One could quite easily forget that the book is meant for young adults more easily than if reading Harry Potter, for example. There are vivid accounts of starvation (a Nazi war tactic) and murder, and deportations of Jews. Overall, a triumphant novel.