Books of the Month

'Tamar' by Mal Peet

This month I've chosen a book which has been branded a 'young adult read', but feels more like an 'anyone' read to me. The award-winning Tamar is an impressive dual narrative, set partly at the end of the Second World War and partly in contemporary Britain. Teenaged Tamar is left a box by her grandfather, with clues which help her piece together his life as a Special Operations Executive in Nazi-occupied Holland. We watch as two agents, codenamed Tamar and Dart, are parachuted in behind the frontier to co-ordinate the sporadic work of the Dutch resistance. Without wanting to give too much away, I can tell you that their undercover efforts are complicated by a sincere but undisclosed emotional attachment, by the Nazi efforts to starve the locals and punish resisters, and by the dangers of relying on so many people to maintain their clandestine operation. The book becomes a study of the pervasive and dangerous nature of secrets.

Mal Peet is fascinated by history and the way it shapes and changes us. This could have been a straightforward (albeit still gripping) wartime story. But the extra layer of contemporary investigation and unravelling adds a dimension which parallels the modern obsession with finding out about ourselves and where we've come from. In Tamar, this connection with history is initially resisted by one character (young Tamar), and actively sought out by another (her father), and though in the end they reach a shared understanding of historical facts, their response to what they learn is very different. Peet suggests that knowing about the past is one thing, but acknowledging your place in the unfolding of events, and recognising that it shapes the person you are, is quite another.

Don't be put off by the 'young adult' label. This is a very enjoyable book for all ages, though a deserved winner of the Carnegie Medal. It's good on the war, it's good on human struggle and survival, and it's good on codes and mysteries. It's well written, doesn't talk down to the reader,and is thought-provoking while being a good read at the same time. There's also a genuinely page-turning conclusion.

If all this sounds interesting, why not read the EnCompass interview with Mal Peet too?

Susan Tranter

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