This book took me a while to get an idea of what was going on. In fact you do not determine the reason for the title until the last chapter. Historical fiction describing life in a jappenkamp, a Japanese-run internment camp for civilian during World War II. The description is vivid and very graphic regarding treatment by the fictional Japanese commander, Nakahara. It was difficult for me to comprehend such cruelty. Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies flipped the world upside down for Jeremiah and his family. The men and teens were removed from the family, leaving ten year old Jeremiah to care for his younger brother and sisters as well as his fragile mother. The theme throughout the book is the love of Jeremiah for Laura and the circumstances of their final meeting. The book starts in the present then plunges us into the past reliving the years when met and parted and then remarkably both ended up in the horrendous condition of the jappenkamp. Their faith in God and Jeremiah's determination to take care of his family held them together until their release. Years later the couple meet in America to spend what is left of their life together. The ending was part I enjoyed the most. I like the idea that Brouwer built the story around the love story of his own parents Willem and Gerda. The author includes photos of his family bringing the story to life. This book was given to me by Waterbrook Press to review for Blogging for Books.
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