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Contact:
Beth Staples
Xlibris Corporation
(215) 923-4686 x.190
Beth.Staples@Xlibris.com
For Immediate Release
(Printable
Version)
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AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL
NOVEL DETAILING LIFE AS A
CHILD OBSERVING THE DUTCH
RESISTANCE OF WW II CREATES A TELLING PICTURE OF
A FAMILY COMING TOGETHER TO
RISE ABOVE THE NAZI OCCUPATION OF HOLLAND
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San Luis Obispo, CA (Publication Date TBD) – A remarkable
autobiography, A Point of Reference explores a young Dutch girl’s
perspective of the Nazi occupation of Holland during Word War II. Van der
Laaken expertly weaves a historical tale that
mirrors the resistance, resilience, resourcefulness and
ethics of her family under the Nazi occupation of their home in The Hague
during the early 1940s.
“In any war winners and
losers equally suffer,” accounts the author, whose parents were two of
the many unheralded soldiers of the Dutch resistance waging underground
war against the Nazis. Central to the story is her mother, a transplanted
German who must decide whether to side with her adopted nation, or her
homeland. Through the author’s eyes we see how her parents make a life
for themselves and their daughter under the harsh conditions of wartime
and Nazi occupation. Her experiences point to the ingenuity of the human
spirit in troubled times - from her father’s conversion of a bicycle
into a press that extracted oil from rape-seed, to the grating of white
sugar beets as a sugar replacement.
Van der Laaken also depicts the Nazi occupiers with insight,
noting that many of them were anonymous pawns in a game of global
dominance. Upon receiving the gift of an egg from a friendly Nazi soldier,
her mother astutely noted that war affects everyone involved, stating,
“Some soldiers are just country boys who had to leave home too soon.”
Indeed, being a German married to a Dutchman gives the author’s
mother a layer of added gravitas that makes the story more poignant, and
illustrates that making the choice between right and wrong is not
something that should be guided by nationality, religion, or political
affiliation, but by the moral high ground.
As a peer of van der Laaken wrote, “it’s easy for us, not
having faced a real war in our adult lives, to forget how horrible life is
for everyone… and easy to forget how wonderful our lives are (also)
because of it.” Van der Laaken’s powerful novel underscores this point
with stunning and uncanny accuracy.
About the Author
Elsa M. van der Laaken grew up in
The Hague, Holland where the Nazi High Command settled during WW II. Born
in 1936, she observed her family’s precarious situation while living in
the Royal Stables, a Nazi-occupied building in The Hague where her father
was employed in Queen Wilhelmina’s service.
Elsa left Holland at age 22, married, and lived in various countries where
her professional life focused on teaching English as a second language.
Her desire to write about WW II never wavered and over the years she
preserved boxes full of photos, articles and personal notes. In 1994 she
graduated from Vermont College after studying Psychology and Creative
Writing while still teaching in Brazil.
After a period of
intensive research in Holland, she moved in 1995 to California where her
children and grandchildren live and started to write.
A POINT OF REFERENCE
By Elsa M. van der Laaken
Publication
Date: May 7, 2002
Trade Paperback; $18.69; 232 pages; ISBN 1-4010-3150-1
Hard Cover; $28.79; 232 pages; ISBN 1-4010-3151-X
The author is available
for interviews by calling (888) 795-4274 ext. 190 or emailing Beth.Staples@Xlibris.com
To request a complimentary review copy of A Point of Reference,
contact the publisher at (888) 795-4274 x.190.
About Xlibris
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services company based in Philadelphia and a strategic partner of Random
House Ventures, LLC, a subsidiary of Random House, Inc. Xlibris books can
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