De troost van sterren

by Dave Boling, Chris Canter (Translator)

Tijdens de Boerenoorlog wordt Lettie met haar moeder, broertje en zusje in een Engels concentratiekamp opgesloten. Terwijl haar vader en opa strijden tegen de Britten, vecht Lettie om in leven te blijven in steeds hopelozer omstandigheden. Ze troost zich met herinneringen aan het sterrenkijken met haar opa, en met haar onverwachte vriendschap met een jonge Britse soldaat.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Africa, War, South Africa, Historical, Audiobook

319 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2014

About the author

Dave Boling is a journalist in the Seattle area. Guernica is his first novel

Reviews

[Mischenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

To see this review and others please visit www.readrantrockandroll.com

The Lost History of Stars by Dave Boling is a powerful and shocking story about a family during The Second Anglo-Boer War during the early part of the 20th century in Africa. It's a work of historical fiction inspired by true events.

Parts of the book were difficult for me to read as the horror of reality sets in. It's unfathomable the scads of women and children that were effected, mainly due to disease. It truly was a war in opposition to children and a true picture of what it's like when war comes to your door.

This is another book I'd recommend for older students to read. If our young generation aren't educated on these tribulations in history, they'll be forgotten.

I'm so glad I came across this book. I look ahead to reading more works by this author. Highly recommend this book to all.

Thanks to Netgalley for sharing a copy with me.

5*****

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love historical fiction, especially when it entails a piece of history I know nothing about. This book details the Boer War from the viewpoint of the Afrikaner families held in concentration camps by the British.

This is not an easy read, but it is an educational and well done book. Lettie is twelve when the book starts and brings the unique perspective of a young adult. She’s got an edge to her. “While I was bothered by her ignorance, I most deeply resented her ignorance of her ignorance.” Or “as I developed the will to persevere, I lost an equal amount of tolerance for those who had not found that will.”

If history tells us one thing, it’s that each side believes in the legitimacy and divine right of their cause. It’s no different here. The Afrikaners were a deeply religious people.

In an essay that Bolings wrote, he says that there are two great fallacies about war. One is that soldiers monopolize the pain and death. The other is that the only thing learned from war is new ways to conduct later wars. This book is truly about the first. More women and children died in this war than soldiers. It’s a sad piece of history which has been mostly forgotten.

I highly recommend this book to all who enjoy historical fiction.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Boers were Dutch descendants, many settling on farmlands in the remote interior of South Africa. The discovery of gold and diamonds pitted the Boers against British colonial interests in the Boer War (1899-1902). While husbands, fathers and sons joined the Boer commandos, women and children stepped up to farm the land. Determined to succeed, the British used scorched earth tactics to destroy family life and livelihood.

Our narrator, thirteen year old, Lettie Venter was working with her mother and siblings on the family farm when British soldiers arrived. The family quickly gathered a few belongings then watched the soldiers torch their farm and slaughter the livestock. The family was then taken by oxcart, joining a caravan earmarked for a concentration camp, a four day journey while experiencing thirst, hunger, overcrowding and overheating. This was just the beginning.

The concentration camp was a densely populated tent city where the fenced in women and children were treated like undesirables. Unreasonable rules were posted throughout the camp. Poor rations and unsanitary conditions, including lack of soap, prevailed.

Lettie Venter kept a journal to write down her thoughts. The journal helped her cope with camp conditions. Having very little paper, she stole camp rule signs that were posted and used the backs of the paper to record memories, especially of night time star gazing with her grandpa who now fought with the Boer commandos. The journal was cathartic, it helped her express her feelings. As time progressed, any togetherness the camp members felt was replaced by suspicion and lack of interest. Lettie's recorded sadness and loss that was palpable. She walked with her eyes downcast to prevent eye contact.

Tommy Maples, a young British guard, over time became a friend of sorts. He described his distaste of war and the concentration camp. At great risk to himself, on two separate occasions, Maples showed compassion for Lettie and her plight. He lent her a copy of "David Copperfield" which she devoured while taking walks in the enclosure. A gift of a stolen potato was a difficult event to read about. The raw potato, to be divided among the residents of the Venter tent, had to be cooked. With no kindling available, Lettie sacrificed pages of her notebooks to heat the potato while inhaling the potato's aroma. Each person's share of the cooked potato was minuscule.

"The Lost History of Stars" by Dave Boling was a well researched history of the hunger, starvation, disease and death of women and children housed in concentration camps as seen through the eyes of a thirteen year old girl. The story is compelling and begs to draw comparison to the feelings and ruminations of Anne Frank. Greed, as a motivating factor, caused 22,000 Boer children to die in British concentration camps. This historical fiction tome has presented a history of women and children as devastating collateral damage of the Boer War. I highly recommend it.

Thank you Algonquin Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Lost History of Stars.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was only when everything was taken away that you got to see what was at your core. And if you could hold on to that, that singular meaning, you went on; if you couldn't, the collapse was complete.

So I'll start of by saying that I'm probably a bit biased in my rating, as I'm Afrikaans this book feels very close to my heart. An easy-reading but insightful portrayal of the Boer war. The facts are rather shocking - in a two year war twenty-two thousand Boer children died in the concentration camps - more than the combined fatalities among soldiers on both sides.
This is the story about fourteen-year old Lettie, who ends up in one of these camps, after being forcefully removed from her farm. Similar to Anne Frank, initially Lettie focuses on everyday things like making friends, and the lack of boys in the camp. As time goes on we get to experience the horror (physical and emotional) of being locked up in a camp like animals. I loved that the author also included a British soldier's experience, as a reminder that war is horrible for all involved. The strength of the Afrikaans women/mothers in all situations - running a farm by themselves after all the males left for the war, or trying to look after their children in the camps - is what will stay with me longest. I highly recommend this to anyone that enjoys historical fiction.

[Sonja Arlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

My great grandmother only went to school for one day. She showed up on the first day of school, found out the teacher was ENGLISH and promptly turned around and went back to the farm.

This is my maternal great grandmother that originates from Bloemfontein in the Freestate. A place in South Africa that was right smack bang in the middle of the Anglo Boer War. The little school “incident” took place a few years after the Boer War, but her reaction to a Rooinek teacher was perfectly acceptable to her parents.

No one came out a winner in this war. Yes, technically the English won but at a terrible cost and yes technically the Boers lost but only after giving the English a proverbial bloody nose they could not soon forget.

Sadly, there are precious few historical fiction that tells these stories. Granted there are books of this War in English and Afrikaans but the majority of them are stuffy non-fiction that never interested me.

The story follows Lettie and her family as they were forcibly removed from their farm as part of the scorched earth policy and sent to a concentration camp while their men were out fighting the English. The conditions in the camps were atrocious but it is almost unbelievable that more children died in this war than soldiers

The author really captured the essence of the Afrikaans culture at the time. Obedience, a strong sense of patriotism, and an unshakable belief in God.

I struggled a little with the beginning of the book but towards the ½ way mark I was fully invested and found the story emotionally rich and absolutely worth my time.

[Margitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a phenominal, beautiful story. I need to congratulate the author on the accurate portrayal of the people and history of the Anglo-Boer war of 1899 to 1902. The protagonist is thirteen-year-old Lettie Venter, who recorded the circumstances and experiences in the British concentration camps for the Afrikaner women and children.

I will write more tomorrow. Need to get some sleep. What a wonderful book this is.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a beautifully written story that takes place during the Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century. Its primary focus is on the experiences of one Boer family and specifically on the mother, two daughters, and a son but the story is told by the older daughter, Lettie. In order to dry up the support of the Boer Army the British undertake a campaign to destroy Boer farms and imprison the Boer families, primarily women and children, in the world's first concentration camps. Yes, the British, not the Germans, invented concentration camps and these camps would have shamed even the Germans. It is the life in one of these camps that is Lettie's story.

While the book is good and worth reading I was rather disappointed. It was not the author's intent to delve into the details of this war and I can accept that. However, this is historical fiction and I expect considerably more history than was offered in this book. To my recollection only one person of historical repute was mentioned in the book and that was an Englishwoman journalist that tried to expose conditions in these camps and a mention was all she got. Other than that mention the history in this novel was non-existent. To me the book became a weak prison story arbitrarily set during a specific historic event without interacting in any way with that event. Further, the camp life described hardly depicted the genuine harshness of these places. I've read too many actual and fictional depictions of these kinds of conditions and by comparison this book failed to do justice to the suffering endured by these women and children. If the author's intention was to use historical fiction in a story about the Boer concentration camps then he needed to do a better job of detailing how oppressive these place were and how and why they existed. The background of these camps is what is missing and that would have put the history in this fiction. My criticisms may be entirely subjective and other readers will probably have different opinions but I liked the book and just thought it could have been better.

[Marianne K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully written coming-of-age story about the consequences of the Boer War on a family of farmers particularly from the POV of the fourteen year old daughter. I had no idea going in that the descendants of the original Dutch settlers to South Africa were rounded up by the British and placed in concentration camps. It’s through this experience, through the Mother’s teaching and through memories of her beloved grandfather that the main character matures. Definitely recommend this.

[Tuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Affecting novel of the British run concentration camps set up to hold boer women children and “giver uppers” . Readers gain some insight into why the boer felt so embattled and a chosen people. And how local tribes were caught in a pincher of western exploitation and out of hand cruelty. From author of Basque novel “guernica “

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute Must Read...As has been proven, history is destined to repeat itself. Although this historical novel takes place in an internment camp in South Africa during the Boer War, unfortunately the circumstances ring true today as people struggle to survive in refugee camps all around the world. Lettie, a 14 year old girl has been sent by the British Army to live in an internment camp with her mother and siblings while the men in her Afrikaner family are off fighting against the British. Despite extreme hardships Lettie does her best to keep going using intelligence, determination and pluckiness. Dave Boling has done a wonderful job of transporting the reader into the midst of the chaos of families separated and uprooted by war as they each try to survive.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard of the Boer War, which took place at the turn of the 20th century, but never did understand exactly what it was all about. In this intense novel, the day-to-day experiences of Dutch Afrikaners forced into "concentration camps" [walls of concentration against the invasion of thoughts] are seen through the eyes of Lettie, 13-years-old and wise beyond her years. Her observations reminded me of Anne Frank, as they were both prisoners during wars that neither wanted, and whose writing "helped me gather my thoughts". "I decided on one thing: I would not write about the war. At least not the battles. Someone else could write about the war's big stories. I would write only about my little part of it, the part I saw myself. We each had our own war." "We were restricted by the fences, but imprisoned more by the infinite sameness." She learned to distinguish by what was "honest, but not the truth, or a truth that was not honest. I'd learned the two were not the same."

The concentration camp is filled with rules, gun-toting British guards, poor sanitation, cramped conditions. The Afrikaners are alternatively called refugees, Undesirables, Irreconcilables. A fence-within-a-fence segregated these Afrikaners from the Boers, who were there under British protection.

This may have been the first altercation in history where "guerilla" tactics were used ["hiding, attacking, hiding, being a nuisance"]. As is the case with many wars, there is really no winner. At the end, there are papers signed and everybody goes home -- if they have a home to go to.

I read this totally engaging EARC courtesy of Algonquin Books and Edelweiss. Pub date 06/06/17

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good story, very sad, it was heartwarming, the relationship the family members had with each other. I had never heard of this war before and I am sadden to think of how many children died in these camps. The lack of food and soap provided by the British, and the sheer waste of their livestock, when that could have gone to provide to sustenance for the refugees and the soldiers. Such a simple thing, makes me think that those in charge were very, very stupid. Unfortunately, knowing nothing about the war or the history of these people, I was a little lost about the relationships with the native people and how Lettie's family ended up in Africa in the first place. Is this perhaps a sequel? Anyway, it was a good book and I'm glad I read it.

[Kim Bertschi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written through the eyes of a young adolescent girl sent with her mother and siblings to a concentration camp during one of the Boer Wars. It was good to learn a little of the history of this time and place, one I had heard of but knew nothing about.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is set in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. Fourteen-year-old Lettie Venter is the narrator. Her Oupa Gideon, Vader, and older brother (Schalk) are off fighting when the British arrive and burn down their farm. Lettie, her Moeder, younger brother (Willem), and baby sister (Cecilia) are taken to an internment camp where they are housed in crowded tents. Lettie describes the deplorable conditions in which they live; people die of disease because of poor sanitation and malnutrition. One of the only positive aspects of Lettie’s time in the camp is the friendship she has with a young British guard, Thomas Maples.

In some ways, this is a coming-of-age novel. Lettie is an intelligent, curious child, always asking questions: “others thought me a pest with my questions.” Her mother describes her as “’helping with the chores when she can get away from her reading and studies. . . . Her mind works so hard you can watch it from the outside’” and her father teases her about her “’dozen questions and then silence.’” Her experiences cause her to question what she has been taught. In the camp, she often thinks about her grandfather and father “speaking their favorite phrases, repeating their themes, the ones I’d heard for years, the ones I accepted without question.” Now she asks, “But if we have no dominion over our lives, Oupa, why strive to be righteous? If we have no part in our fate, what is the point?”

Her friendship with Maples has her learning more about the enemy. Maples forces Lettie to see the British as individuals who are not all like those who destroyed her home. Maples gifts her a copy of David Copperfield and she starts to think of the protagonist as a real person: “He was British, but the war had not been his fault.” She realizes she and David share similarities: “I liked David and felt . . . what? Akin. That’s the word” and “Our lives on the farm were hard in many ways. But not like David’s. And he seemed such a goodhearted little, doing his best, trying to see the good in people. I did not see how David could be an enemy of my country.” And she learns that Maples is as unhappy in the camp as she is; she comes to realize his “desire to back away from the savagery of the war.” The two years Lettie spends in the camp force her to grow up; at the end, she realizes she is “a different person – far closer to the woman I would become than to the little girl I had been.”

Because the narrator is young, there is much that she does not understand. The reader often sees the significance of statements that she does not. For instance, Lettie does not understand about her mother’s pregnancy. Comments that an adult might question, she dismisses; for example, Schalk comments that “’Oupa is hard on [Oom Sarel]. Never lets up. Doesn’t seem to matter what he does.’” This suggests an underlying animosity that explains much about Oom Sarel’s behaviour though Lettie does not come to understand until much later. Of course, having a young person as a narrator serves to emphasize the horrors of life in the camp.

I enjoy books that shed light on historical events. This one shines a spotlight on the Anglo-Boer war and the mistreatment of women and children during the conflict: “twenty-two thousand Boer children died in British concentration camps – more than the combined fatalities among soldiers on both sides. It wasn’t on the scale of the Holocaust, nor was it of genocidal intent, but it was nevertheless a twentieth-century atrocity – a war against children – that has been largely forgotten.”

The portrayal of the Boers is sometimes idealized. Arthur Conan Doyle is quoted at the beginning: “[The Boers] must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile, unconquerable races ever seen upon earth” and it seems that Boling shares this opinion. Conan Doyle wrote about the Boers’ “dour fatalistic Old Testament religion and an ardent and consuming patriotism”; in the novel, Oupa, with his “immense faith” is the former and Vader, with his unrelenting behaviour even in defeat, is the latter. I appreciated that Maples tries to show Lettie that the Boers are not guiltless; they took land from the Zulus and fought wars: “’Oh . . . were [the natives] happy you showed up? Did they welcome you? I doubt it. See, we’re not so different.’” And anyone with knowledge of future events in South Africa will note the very telling comment at the end when a native woman is asked about her people and she replies, “’I don’t know . . . A beaten dog will someday bare its teeth.’”

This is a book I would recommend. It includes a young narrator (who may remind readers of Anne Frank, another intelligent writer-in-the-making) and shows her growing into an admirable woman. There are also other well-developed and memorable characters, Tante Hannah being one of my favourites. The book also highlights historical events probably not known to many people but events that should not be hidden.

Note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I went through the notes, I sensed I’d been hollowed out. The camp had made me see the order of the things that we surrender. What goes first? Consideration? Compassion? Friendship? And then it gets down to faith, or maybe it’s family and then faith, or maybe even memories. It was only when everything was taken away that you got to see what was at your core. And if you could hold on to that, that singular meaning, you went on; if you couldn’t, the collapse was complete.

What do we become when everything is taken from us - our freedom, our family, our humanity? Do we change? Do we become the worst version of ourselves? The best?

This book is beautiful! And it covers a time in history that I honestly knew NOTHING about previously (I've said it before - the best books are those that make me want to learn more about something). I had heard of the Boer Wars but honestly had no idea what they were or even where they occured (I really should have taken more history classes in college). Maybe I'll amend my statement - the best books are those that make me realize how much I don't know about the world.

The book is told from the perspective of a 13-year-old Dutch Afrikaaner girl whose is imprisoned in an internment camp along with her mother and younger siblings while her father, grandfather, and older brother are off fighting the British. When I think of South Africa, I think of apartheid and white imperialism - I had no idea these other things happen (the American education system seriously needs to get away from the inward-looking curriculum and realize that there is a whole big world out there). In addition to providing me with a history lesson, this book took me through every emotion in the spectrum. It's heartbreaking yet full of hope, an illustration of the best of humanity (perseverance, altruism, love) as it butts up against the worst of humanity (selfishness, prejudice, greed). To borrow a phrase from a friend, this was a "clutchable" book. I rarely reread books, but I am anxious to go back through this one to catch all the beauty that I undoubtably missed in my rush to see Lettie's fate.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please read more of my reviews at: http://cavebookreviews.blogspot.com

Presenting life from a child's perspective is a challenging task for a writer. A child's first person perspective is the most unreliable narrator but, it is the kind of subjective narration that reaches the reader's heart and soul with laser beams of joy and sorrow. In his new novel, The Lost History of Stars, Dave Boling has created a witness to the horrors of life in a concentration camp during the British-Boer War of 1899-02. Lettie is a thirteen year old Dutch Afrikaner who is forced into a concentration camp with her mother and younger brother and sister after the British soldiers burn down their house. Lettie's older brother, father, and grandfather are soldiers fighting the British. The farms were considered a source of support and supplies for the Dutch Afrikaner soldiers so a solution for the British troops was to burn their houses and kill their livestock.

Women and children were herded together into a camp for 'support' which turned out to be a place of great suffering and loss. Lettie tells her story of living in a guarded camp without enough food, medicine, or hygienic living conditions. Lettie loves to read and write so we get glimpses into the things she writes in her journal and her impressions of reading about British culture from the book, David Copperfield. Lettie has big dreams for her life and we hope that she will achieve every one of them, especially when it comes to helping other people. She has seen more than her share of evil at a young age.

Unfortunately, these kinds of stories are being played out all over the world still, today. Refugee camps are very often a misnomer and thus ignored by the world vision. If only lessons were learned from history.

ARC received courtesy of NetGalley and Algonquin Books (June 6th 2017).

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this author's novel about the Spanish Civil War (Guernica), so decided to read The Lost History of Stars also. The story is told by a 14-year old "Boer" girl in about 1900, and alternates between chapters of life in a British "concentration camp" in Africa, and chapters about life on the farm where she lived with her family before the 2nd Boer War started. The novel is based on a shocking history, when British troops forcibly removed Boer (Dutch) women/children/elderly from their African farms, burned the farms, and transported them to camps where over 20,000 died in a period of less than two years. (The Boer men were off trying to repel the British invasion of their farmlands, which started after gold and diamonds were discovered.) The story demonstrated the strength of family, faith, and perseverance in the face of significant hardship and loss. As with Guernica, it is well-told and researched.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite book I’ve read this year. It’s a beautifully written, bittersweet story about a family sent to a concentration camp during the Boer War. I admit to knowing almost nothing about this war before reading this novel. I’m really impressed with the author’s research as well as his ability to write through the eyes of a 14 year old girl. I can’t wait to read his first book now!

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stand in awe of Dave Boling's ability to tell this story from the perspective of a fourteen year old girl. He captures her inner thoughts and feelings while chronicling the Boer War in South Africa. And he does so with such tenderness and insight. Bravo, Mr Boling! This book is a must read.

[Kelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an awesome book that tells of a slice of history that I had never heard of before. I did wish it told a little bit of more of what was going on in the country and not focus quite so much just on the one girl’s experience but I really did like it.

[Tripfiction · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiction set in South Africa (not Britain’s proudest moment…)

A remarkable book in many ways. The Undesirables is the story of one facet of the 1900 Second Boer War between the Dutch settlers in South Africa and the British army they were fighting. It is, and this may come as quite a shock to many, the story of how - 40 years before the Holocaust – the British raised farmhouses to the ground, and imprisoned the women and children in mass ‘concentration’ camps with only the barest of amenities. Disease and malnutrition were rampant – the Second Boer War killed more children in concentration camps than soldiers on both sides in actual combat.

The ‘Undesirables’ was the name the British gave to those who would not surrender and cooperate. Other names were the ‘Tame’ Boers for those who would not fight, the ‘Hand Uppers’ for those who had surrendered to the British, and (worst of all) the ‘Joiners’ who had both surrendered and agreed to help the British in combat or scouting. A fence inside the camp kept the ‘Undesirables’ from the rest – and in by far the worst conditions.

The book is the story of the Venter family. It starts just before the War in their family farm in the Orange Free State. There are Moeder and Vater, and Moeder’s father, Oupa. Plus four children – Schalk, Aletta / Lettie, Willem and little Cecelia / Cece. Oupa, Vater, and Schalk go off to defend their homeland leaving Moeder to manage the farm and remaining family as best she can. Shortly the British come, ransack the farm to stop the men returning for supplies – and take the rest off to a camp… where most of the subsequent action in the book takes place. The ‘heroine’ of the story is Lettie through whom the narrative is told in the first person. She, and Moeder, are the strength of the family during the two years they spend in the camp. They experience malnutrition and disease, and death is all around them… Lettie is an adolescent, and she grows over the course of the book as she finds ways to cope with the confinement, privation, and loss. There is a ‘love’ interest in the form of Tommy Maples, a British soldier, who befriends Lettie and helps her smuggle letters to Tante Hannah on the traitors’ side of the fence. But it ends in tears.

The last chapter of the book is after the War when the family return to the farm, are reunited with their much loved black servant, Bina, and gradually recover their sanity and their health. They reconcile with Tante Hannah, and live with her as they start on the massive task of rebuilding their home. We learn what has happened to their men (but to tell would be a spoiler…).

The Undesirables is a book that had several profound effects on me – first, the obvious one of learning how the British army behaved just over 100 years ago. It is not a period of which we should be proud. Second, the quiet dignity and faith of the Boers (particularly Moeder and Lettie) in the face of such adversity. And thirdly I marvel at how Dave Boling, a Chicago native now working as a journalist in Seattle, could have got so far under the skin of both Boers and British in such a far off war and location. I had presumed he was either British, Boer, or Dutch – but then discovered he was not. He is a very impressive writer. His only previous book, Guernica, tells the story of the 1937 Luftwaffe raid on this Basque town – and was Richard and Judy’s Summer Read for 2009. Some logic here in that his wife is a Basque whose family moved to the States – but I can’t fathom the Boer connection!

That said, I really look forward to his third book – wherever it may be set.

[Katy O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quality historical fiction makes you seek out more information on the topic at hand, and this book did exactly that for me. I had only ever heard mention of the term "Boer" and did not truly have an understanding of the word, much less have any knowledge of the war that this book is based on or the history of Dutch and English colonization of South Africa (beyond what I read in Trevor Noah's "Born a Crime"). This book has a helpful introduction that explains Boling's impetus for writing this book and a brief history of the war that frames the story for readers like me, but of course after reading Lettie's story, I was and am eager to seek out more factual content.

Boling did an outstanding job of writing from a young teenage girl's point of view, and held nothing back in his description of the horrors of war and the concentration camps and the proclaimed "war against women and children". I was concerned at first about reading from the God-fearing colonists' POV, since we now are quite aware of how they came to claim the land from the people who originally lived there. However, Boling does include a scene in which an English soldier puts Lettie straight about how the English did the exact same thing to the Boers as the Boers did to the Zulus - slashed and burned and killed and took the land for their own. It's interesting to ponder such an issue, given that writing from Lettie's POV and the colonist's POV IS a valid POV - not necessarily an accurate portrayal of the original events of the colonization, but Lettie and the Boers of her time were not the original colonists. This is the information she had been fed from birth.

This is the same discussion being had now about portrayal of the colonization of the US and American Indians........can you write from a colonist's POV without harming the colonized? Can we read Laura Ingalls Wilder and understand that this truly is how western settlers thought? Is it historically accurate describing things as Lettie does in this book because that is how she truly felt and understood her history, right or wrong? Should there have been parts of the story more accurately describing how Bina came to live with their family? When we read of American slavery, reading from a plantation owner's perspective feels horrible to us, but if that is the way a person in that position felt and acted, is it a valid POV to write from? Should all fiction be written from the POV of the marginalized? All excellent points to ponder after reading this book, and certainly something that I will be following up on in additional reading on the Second Anglo-Boer War from the perspective of South Africans.

Thank you to Algonquin for providing me with a paperback advance reading copy of this book for review - all opinions are my own.

[L F · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great Trek. This is not based on the great epic of the Boer War in South Africa, where the novel plays out. A young girl lives her formative years in an internment camp where deprivation and starvation controls their lives where many are unable to survive. Her family will never be the same. But, she learns much about life and death during those awful years.

[Diana S · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5☆☆☆☆

[Katherine Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fellow journalist, I admire the research that went into this book and I found the story captivating. This is definitely a story that deserves to be told and the suffering that the Boers endured at the hand of the British in the concentration camps is one of our country's darkest hours. The characters of Lettie, the young protagonist, her brother Schalk, her stauch mother, younger brother Willem and her Oupa were all nuanced and believable. I liked Maples, the British guard, but the climax leaves you horrified at what the war has transformed him into. Likewise, in that same moment, you have such respect for Oom Sarel, previously branded a coward, who manages to redeem himself.

There were a few things that jarred for me (which other South African readers also picked up on) - for example, Lettie calling her aunt "Tante" instead of the informal, more commonly-used "Tannie". Also I found the aspects of Bina, Lettie's friend and the family servant, a bit odd, e.g. greeting her with the word "Peace", waving her hand to represent water, etc. Perhaps it would have been better to simply insert the Sotho word e.g. "Dumelang". Another thing that bothered me was the reference to praying for somebody's soul, which is a Catholic belief, certainly not one practised in the Dutch Reformed Church, whose followers share a Protestant faith similar to Calvinism.

The chapters that really stood out for me were the one in which Oupa whisks Lettie outside to gaze at the stars and indulge in a midnight feast of rusks and coffee and the harvesting of the oats which is beautifully described. I couldn't work out if the Venter farm was in the Transvaal or the Free State, but I thought the milieu was well sketched and sprang to life, especially the description of the smells of the veld and what they meant.

I found the structure of the book satisfying - how it ends at the beginning and you realise Lettie has crafted a story of her experiences of the war, tying in the night outdoors where she overcame her initial fear of the roaring lions. A great read - very ambitious and elucidating.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It was only when everything was taken away that you got to see what was at your core. And if you could hold on to that, that singular meaning, you went on; if you couldn't, the collapse was complete."

In this historical fiction novel by Dave Boling, Lettie, a thirteen year old Dutch-Africkaner girl at the turn of the last century, endures the loss of her home, with her mother and two younger siblings when the scorched earth policy employed by the British during the Boer War burns their farm and forces them to leave in a wagon. Their African maid, Bina, tries to stay with the family, but is given no choice by the soldiers but to return to her people.

Driven to a concentration camp, Lettie and her family worry about her father, older brother, and grandfather who are out fighting the British with guerrilla tactics. Lettie also worries and wonders about Bina and her family. Often Lettie remembers the songs and wisdom Bina shared during her childhood and the history of stars that Oupa (Grandpa) shared with her at night under the sparkling sky.

According to history, the Second Boer War, in which this story is set, lead to the death of nearly 28,000 Boers (Dutch farm family members) and just over 14,000 black Africans. Of those nearly 28,000 Boers, just over 22,000 were children under 16 who mostly died of malnutrition and disease in the camps.

I didn't know anything about the Boer Wars. But I have read of war and man's inhumanity to man, and the horrors of captured people during war and civil unrest and been moved by it many times. This is among many other great books about what happens to people when all that they have and even are, is stripped away to almost nothing.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In October 1899, the Dutch Afrikaner settlers in South Africa are brutally removed from their homes, their farms are burned to the ground and the women and children are placed in concentration camps. The men have gone off to fight the British whose interest in the lucrative gold mines and control of the region have driven thousands of soldiers to war. What is known as the Boer War lasted for three long harsh years. Through the eyes of 14 yr old Lettie, The Lost History of Stars narrates their unimaginable quarantine living in sparse tents with little food, water or medicine. Lettie forms an unlikely friendship with a young British soldier guarding the camp. He gives her a book by Dickens. Lettie’s love of reading and dreams of writing fill her with the strength she needs to help her mother and siblings through the daily battle of living. It is through the hopeful eyes of this young girl on the cusp of womanhood we learn the brutality of mankind against mankind. Her innocence and disbelief is so raw and honest that the pain is palpable. More than 100 years later, this history I knew little or nothing about is brought to life by this beautifully written work of historical fiction. As I read each chapter I fell deeper into the heart of Lettie’s sorrow, and her determination to remain hopeful. We are all looking up at the sky, the same stars - but cannot manage to peacefully share the same planet. It was happening then and it is happening now. Highly recommend this impassioned novel, you will learn from and love these characters long after the end.

[Linda Lpp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am quite enjoying the writing style of this author. A tough story to tell about difficult lives in Boer war times of Dutch Africanners people. Males forced to join in the fight, farms and homes ransacked and burned to the ground and women and children driven to dismal conditions in overcrowded tent concentration camps guarded by British soldiers with barbed wire perimeters.
The story told by the poor farm girl Lettie pierces your heart when you read all she and others have so bravely endured. A story one will be sure to remember, especially when you gaze up at the stars. I am also thinking this could be called "The History of Lost Stars"

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book about a period of time I knew nothing about, set in South Africa during the Boer War. I never realized women and children were run off their homes and lands and sent to concentration camps, and was appalled at the hardship and deprivation they endured. This story of a 14-year old girl and what happened to her in one camp is one I will not soon forget. It is beautifully told with such well-developed characters that I grew to love and care about. This one is a must-read!

Thanks to Net Galley for ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Gena DeBardelaben · Rating 4 out of 5]

eARC: Netgalley

Man's inhumanity to man. The horrors of war are the same no matter which war is being fought.

The Boer War seems to be a little known war in the U.S. I had heard of it, of course, but knew very few details. The Lost History of Stars puts a human face on the details. It was impossible for me not to draw similarities between these concentration camps and the concentration camps of WWII. No matter how much I try, I will never understand how human beings can treat other humans this way. Maybe some day we will grow beyond these horrors.