Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal

Location: Home » body art - tattoo » Exploration & Discoveries » Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal

Similar Items:

•	The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
•	The Arrival
•	The Invention of Hugo Cabret
•	Before I Die
•	The Wednesday Wars

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
From acclaimed British sensation Mal Peet comes a masterful story of adventure, love, secrets, and betrayal in time of war, both past and present.

When her grandfather dies, Tamar inherits a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. Out of the past, another Tamar emerges, a man involved in the terrifying world of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Holland half a century before. His story is one of passionate love, jealousy, and tragedy set against the daily fear and casual horror of the Second World War — and unraveling it is about to transform Tamar’s life forever.

Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

The self-interest of survival is stronger than any code of honor May 31, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Tamar and Dart are spies who parachute into Nazi-occupied Netherlands during the "Hunger Winter" of 1944. Tamar's mission is to convince Dutch resistance groups to unify under the authority of the British government. Dart is his wireless operator, at a time when a WO's life expectancy in the field is just a few months. Tamar is undercover as a farm laborer sent home from Nazi work camps due to broken health. Dart is disguised as a doctor in residence at a sanatorium. They communicate only with the help of local resistance members, any of whom could be Nazi spies.

Very little information is given about the characters beyond their duties as spies. Both are Dutch, but it is never revealed how they came to be recruited by the British or what their lives were like before they were spies. It is almost as though their choice to become spies has erased all other sense of identity. They have no past and no future beyond their present mission, even as personal feelings begin to color their relationships to one another and the organization they serve.

Approximately 50 years later, a teen girl, also named Tamar, inherits a mysterious box from her grandfather. She and her cousin Yoyo take a trip into the British countryside seeking the origins of the Tamar river and the answer to a family secret that has remained hidden for generations. The two stories dovetail in a compelling novel about the legacy of a world at war, binding people across borders and generations.

World War II happened so long ago that it is beginning to pass from memory into history. The world of TAMAR's spies is so different from our own that it might as well be an imaginary world. The secret hiding places, archaic communications like Morse code, and extreme precautions like cyanide pills add to a sense of a vanished and exotic world. It is also a period that has been fetishized over the years by many fictional portrayals. Instead of making history seem more immediate, the many movies and novels about the period can serve to make it seem less real, more a Hollywood invention than actual events impacting the lives of millions. Nazis have become stock characters, as recognizable in their uniforms with stiff marching and salutes as the villain in swirling cape and twirling mustache was in melodramas long ago. It would be easy to write another novel about the atrocities of the war without adding anything new to the literature.

Mal Peet avoids cliche through his vividly detailed recreation of The Netherlands in the winter of 1944. He writes about a population being starved into submission by their Nazi occupiers, forcing "hunger trippers" to walk miles into the country in search of food. He writes about silken code sheets that can be packed into a tiny capsule and swallowed in case of capture, and about wireless operators on amphetamines trying to stay alert through stifling boredom and constant fear.

Best of all, the author refuses to oversimplify the conflict into good vs. evil. Most of the trouble in the novel relates to the competing agendas between different factions of the resistance, and misunderstandings between individuals who are supposed to be fighting on the same side. Nazis aren't the only enemy. The novel's protagonists also battle against fear, boredom, isolation, starvation, mistrust, substance abuse and nerves stretched to a breaking point.

The level of detail in the book, invoking a specific time and place, as well as the moral complexity required of its characters in a world where the self-interest of survival is stronger than any code of honor, distinguish TAMAR in a sea of novels about World War II. Mal Peet finds the perfect balance between thrilling adventure and serious history without relying on stock characters or sentimentality. TAMAR is not the first novel to be written about spies during WWII, but it is one of the few written for a young adult audience and is one of the best novels on the subject for readers of any age.

--- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood

4 out of 5 stars

Nearly excellent April 3, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Tamar is a well written story, well paced and rich with detail. The characters are clearly drawn and realistic. The reason for 4 stars and not five is that, toward the end of the novel, one of the characters seems to have knowledge which she should not have. She was not an eye-witness to the incident, coming upon the scene after it was finished. She should have no knowledge of this crucial occurance. Other than this, a fabulous story.

5 out of 5 stars

What a story! May 12, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I inhaled this. It was very difficult to put down, and it is 424 pages.
In 1995, 15 year old Tamar's grandfather's suicide bewilders her, as does the bewildering collection of things that he has left her in his apartment. There is a mystery, she knows, and her grandfather loved puzzles, as does she. Her father, his son, has disappeared, and she talks a distant relative into helping her solve the mystery--which is related to the other part of the story, that of two undercover operatives who parachute into the Nazi-occupied Netherlands late in 1944 and encounter both the starving winter and an array of plots, relationships and dangers. A compelling story, this sticks with you.

5 out of 5 stars

The best book I have read in a very long time March 24, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The book takes your interest almost from the very first page. The descriptions are very portraying. When reading the book, the author gives you the feeling as if you are taking part in the whole story. The way that Mal Peet lets you enter the mind and the feelings of Tamar is really impressive.

The book is also very well structured. Being a very mathematically oriented person, of course I like structure. But that is not what I mean. Mal Peet has taken structure one step further. He uses chapters to jump between present, recent past and far past. He also uses those chapters to unfold gradually the plot of the story. Fortunately, he's doing it in such a way that the tension grows to the very end of the book. So, it's only at the very end that, as a reader, you finally see how all the bits and pieces fit together.

Finally, when I first read the title I thought: "well designed title, so that the book will sell better". After reading the book, I have to say that the title covers the content of the book very well. So, it's not just a title to sell.

5 out of 5 stars

Wow! August 6, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

At times, you may feel like you know where the story is headed only to find yourself far from where you expected. The novel switches from different tenses: the past, present, not too long ago past, etc. but only in a manner of sequence that is evident towards the end. Time seems to go in drags and lurches but altogether ties up nicely. The book also has such realistic and historical accuracy blended into a web of fiction that makes this book such a great read. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic