The Boy Between Worlds by Annejet van der Zijl - 4 stars (Subdue)

[Joy D]

The Boy Between Worlds by Annejet van der Zijl - 4* - My Review

“How could two people who already had so much against them, their difference in skin color, difference in age, the economic depression of the 1930s, discrimination, and the consequences of a traumatic divorce find it in their hearts to risk their lives for other persecuted people? … I guess you could say that this story became my own little investigation into the how and why of heroism based on the facts of two ordinary people who found themselves caught up in the great wheels of world history.”

Published in 2004, this book tells a true story of Waldemar Nods, a young man from Suriname. In the 1920s, he meets Rika van der Lans, a married Dutch woman, and they fall in love. Nods eventually moves to the Netherlands, and despite societal disapproval and racial prejudices, they move in together and eventually have a son, whom they nickname “Sonny Boy” (which is the original title of this book). Her first husband forbids their children to see their mother until they become adults. The majority of the narrative focuses on Rika and Waldemar’s life in the Netherlands, where they get involved in the Dutch Resistance, helping to hide Jewish people from the Nazis. Their actions put them in great danger, and they are eventually betrayed.

This book reminds me of Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place. I always appreciate reading these accounts of regular people who display the resolve to confront danger and uncertainty to help others. I read the English translation from the original Dutch. I found it a moving story of love, courage, and resistance.