The Lost History of Stars

April 24, 2017
In his new novel, Boling tries to do for the Boer War what he did for the Spanish Civil War in his previous novel, Guernica, but with uneven dramatic results. The year is 1900 when 13-year-old Lettie, her siblings, and her mother are removed from their family farm in South Africa by British soldiers and taken to a concentration camp for Dutch settlers. Lettie’s father, grandfather, and older brother are off fighting with a Boer commando. In the camp, deprivations are many and things are especially hard on the young children, many of whom succumb to various diseases. Lettie maintains her spirits by keeping a journal and by recalling her life on the farm, especially going out at night with her grandfather to watch the stars. She also slowly becomes friendly with a British soldier, Tommy Maples, who is sickened by the way his countrymen treat the Boers. He gives her a copy of David Copperfield and introduces Lettie to the solace of great literature. Nothing good, though, can come of this relationship, which ends on an unsurprisingly tragic note. While the author does a convincing job of portraying the cruelty of the British towards their Boer captives, as well as the perspective of the Boer warriors and their kin, there is a certain narrative predictability that prevents the story from landing fully. Lettie, though, in her resilient nature might remind readers of another young South African protagonist, Peekay of Bryce Courtenay’s similarly inspiring The Power of One.

This engrossing audiobook animates an often overlooked time in history, and Gemma Dawson's nimble narration ably maneuvers the story's nuances. As the Boer War rages, 14-year-old Lettie, her mother, and brother, who are Dutch Afrikaner settlers, are removed from their farm by British soldiers and forced to endure the horrors of a concentration camp. Dawson voices Lettie well, combining the innocence of the character's age with the strength of her resolve. While Dawson's skill with accents and voices is considerable--the listener can readily follow the time shifts between grim camp life and the happier memories of the past--there are times when the audio format spotlights gaps or slow sections in the story. Overall, though, this is a solid production, well performed. L.B.F. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine