Dark is the Night by Rachel Evans - #bookreview #blotour

At a minute to midnight, Casper and Lotte Van Doujke stand at their attic window in quiet anticipation. Blond heads luminescent in the light of the full moon, the brother and sister rest their grazed elbows on the sill....

The Blurb

In Nazi-occupied Holland, a mother and son fight to survive.

When his sister Lotte dies of blood poisoning, Casper Van Doujke leaves his island home of Terschelling for Amsterdam. Blaming himself for Lotte’s death, he studies to become a doctor.

Meanwhile, his mother Elske Van Doujke’s quiet mourning for her daughter is interrupted when the Nazis occupy Terschelling. When a face from the past returns to the island, Elske has a final chance of happiness. But can she take it?

Mother and son join the Dutch resistance, risking everything for their people as they live through occupation and famine. In her remote cottage, Elske shelters young Dutch men trying to escape to England and Allied airmen attempting to avoid capture. In Amsterdam, Casper works as a doctor for the resistance and falls in love with the fiancée of his cell’s leader.

But when the war threatens those closest to them, Elske and Casper are forced to make impossible choices just to survive.

My Review

This book made for fabulous reading and I was gripped from the very first page to the last.

Set during World War Two, the story follows a mother and her son, as they navigate their way through  Nazi occupation Holland. Being set in Holland the book has added something slightly different to the World War Two canon of fiction set during this period.

It was a powerful novel and we follow the main characters, Elske, who lives in a small village in rural Holland and her son, Casper, living in Amsterdam where he was studying to be a doctor at the outbreak of war. Both are helping the Dutch resistance in their own ways. Casper can use his medical skills and knowledge to aid both the Jews who are in hiding and injured allied airmen.

The chapters are all told from the perspective of the two main characters. This gave the story an immediacy and it made it easy to empathise with their stories. They were both excellent characters who the author has fully fleshed out and I ended the book feeling like I knew these two people.

The atmosphere the author created was excellent and very powerful. She brought the hardships of the characters and those around them expertly to life. I felt as though I were there with them. She has clearly conducted her research rigorously in order to portray the harsh and brutal time in which her characters lived.

There was a good balance of prose and dialogue and it made for an excellent book to read. I highly recommend this powerful historical fiction novel.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1836285182 

Publisher:  Troubador Publishing

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  456 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Since I was a little girl, I’ve always written stories (which I kept in a shoe box beneath my bed). Having cerebral palsy, I found an escape in writing and I still do. After doing a BA (Hons) in English and French and an MA in Modern Languages Research, I trained to be a newspaper journalist. I now work as a teaching assistant in a primary school where I share my love of writing with the children I teach. In my free time, I spend every moment I can writing. Escaping to the past, especially World War II, helps me cope with the stresses of life in the present. 

You can also find Rachel at:

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(ARC and media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)