Girl in the Blue Coat

Starred review from January 25, 2016
In this riveting Holocaust novel, Hesse, a journalist for the Washington Post, brings readers to 1943 Nazi-occupied Amsterdam as teenage Hanneke Bakker learns more than she ever wanted to know about the atrocities committed against her Jewish neighbors. When Hanneke, who supports her family by delivering black market goods, is enlisted by a customer to search for a disappeared 15-year-old Jewish girl named Mirjam, she tries to keep her quest an isolated concern. As Hanneke’s investigation draws her into the web of systematized degradation and brutality afflicting all Jews, she recognizes that refusing to participate in the underground resistance would make her complicit with evil. Hanneke forcefully conveys the tortured emotions of citizens and city: “Fear. That’s right. That was the odor I couldn’t place before. That’s the smell of my beautiful, breaking country.” Themes of guilt and betrayal, ingenuity and courage, and the divisive effect of the occupation on friendship and community weave through a gripping historical mystery in which people and places, including the title character, are often not what they appear. Ages 12–up. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown.

July 4, 2016
In 1943 in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, Hanneke tries to survive by selling black market items. One of her customers secretly asks for her help in finding a Jewish girl she had been hiding who had mysteriously disappeared. In searching for clues, she gets involved with the Resistance movement, risking her life to find the missing girl and defy the Nazis. Narrator Payne has a clear, youthful voice well-suited to Hanneke, conveying both her inner strength and her tension and fear in dangerous situations, as well as her mourning for her boyfriend who died in the war. She does equally well voicing other characters, including an authentic German accent for the soldiers who repeatedly stop and question Hanneke. The suspenseful and moving story will keep listeners riveted. Ages 12–up. A Little, Brown hardcover.

Natalia Payne's flat narration captures the detached emotions of 18-year-old Hanneke. In occupied Amsterdam, Hanneke carefully distances herself from the clients for whom she provides black market goods. When an elderly widow asks her to find a Jewish girl in a blue coat, reticent Hanneke is plunged into a mystery that soon involves her with a resistance group. Experiencing Nazi brutality, she relives past hurts, grief, and regrets, making the reasons for Payne's emotional remove clear and contrasting Hanneke's personality with the increasingly violent setting. At the peak of the horror, Hanneke's honesty emerges, and Payne's reading becomes more emotional. Suzanne Toren's authoritatively voiced author's notes follow, as well as a conversation with the author, narrator, and editors. S.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine