The Handkerchief Map

Everywhere shots are fired, still people are crying, still cities are being destroyed, still we're waiting for the end, but even when the end arrives, there will still be tears, still people will suffer, still there will be sadness. The struggle will not end when the last shot is fired. A coming-of-age epistolary novel written as a series of letters from people involved in World War II writing to their loved ones. In this extraordinary novel set in World War II, three characters reveal their most intimate thoughts on the conflict. Franz, a young Nazi soldier has begun to question the rightness of the cause. Helga is a Russian girl bent on joining the resistance. Susanna is a Jewess who has been separated from her husband and children and condemned to the cruelty of a concentration camp. This work is remarkable because the author wrote it while still a high school student in Australia, with no direct contact with survivors of the war. Several years on, she returned to it with the benefit of further research and experience to recreate this gripping tale. Sure to be loved by readers of Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief or The Diary of Anne Frank. Nominated for the NSW Premier's Literary Award for Young Writers.