2005 young adult novel by Mal Peet
Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal is a young-adult novel by Mal Peet, published by Walker Books in 2005. Within a 1995 frame story, where a 15-year-old girl inherits papers and other mementos from her deceased grandfather, it is set in the occupied Netherlands near the end of the Second World War; there it features two British-trained Dutch agents and the resistance to German occupation of the Netherlands. The novel interweaves past and present to show the lasting effects of war and the passions it arouses.
Peet won the annual Carnegie Medal from the British librarians, recognising the year's best children's book published in the U.K. According to WorldCat, it is his work most widely held in participating libraries.
Walker's U.S. division Candlewick Press published the first North American edition in February 2007, entitled "Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal".
Plot summary.
1945.
Part of the book takes place in 1945 the Netherlands, during the last part of World War II. The story centers on two Dutch men codenamed Tamar and Dart, who are agents of a covert military group called the Special Operations Executive, or SOE. In this point in time the Netherlands is occupied by the Nazis, and the Dutch resistance is "a bloody shambles". Tamar and Dart, his WO (wireless operator), are sent into the Netherlands to organize the different resistance groups into a more cohesive unit. This is Tamar's second time in the Netherlands as an SOE agent, and he is sent to recover his old alias, Christiaan Boogart. When he arrives he reunites with the woman he fell in love with the first time he was in the Netherlands, Marijke. As the novel continues Dart begins to spend more time with Marijke, and begins to fall in love with her, oblivious to the fact that she and Tamar are in love.
After realizing that Tamar and Marijke are involved Dart is described as feeling furious and comes to the conclusion "that it was not her fault. She had been seduced, cynically and deliberately, by the man [Tamar] who should have been protecting her." Slowly he begins to hate and distrust Tamar. Meanwhile, a group of the resistance led by Koop de Vries open fire on a Nazi vehicle. One of the men they shot turns out to be the "head of Nazi internal security in Holland" SS Lieutenant General Hanns Albin Rauter. Rauter is rushed to a hospital and dispatches his deputy to execute the number of Dutch prisoners (known as "toteskandidaten", death candidates) as there are bullet holes in his car, 243. When Tamar hears about this, and the executions begin, he tracks down Koop and confronts him, telling him "I know where to find you."
As the story continues, Koop and his group are ambushed by the Nazis at their hideout, and everyone is killed except for Koop, who manages to run. At the asylum where Koop receives medical treatment he reveals to Dart that he believes Dart and Tamar have betrayed the resistance. Dart believes he gains Koop's confidence by telling him "I believe you. I think Tamar betrayed your group." The two create a plan to get rid of Tamar. Their plan goes smoothly, they kill Tamar, but Koop attacks Dart, and is shot by Marjke. When she sees Tamar's body "she [throws] her head back and [begins] to howl like an animal." Eventually Dart convinces Marijke that it is too dangerous to stay in the Netherlands, and the two flee to England.
1995.
In the prologue of the novel, before Tamar is born, her grandfather, William Hyde, requests her father Jan to name her Tamar. The novel then fast forwards to when Tamar is fifteen years old in London, in 1995, and lives with her mother after her father, Jan, disappears. Her grandmother, Marijke, is slowly going mentally downhill, and speaks more Dutch than English. Tamar and her mother accompany her grandfather to the assisted living center where her grandmother will be staying. Her grandmother rejects the company of her grandfather and insists on riding only with Tamar: "I'm not going with you! I'm staying with Tamar, here with Tamar." Shortly after her grandmother is sent to the living center, her grandfather commits suicide. Tamar takes his death hard, and waits months to go and visit her grandfather's flat with her mother. Once at the flat, she finds a box lying on her bed labeled Tamar. Inside the box lie many clues leading to her grandfather's past. She takes the box to her distant cousin Yoyo (Johannes van Zant), who decides they should follow the clues and see where they lead.
In the middle of the plot, during Tamar and Yoyo's adventure along the Tamar river, they slowly start to fall in love with each other, despite their age differences. As the novel continues, Tamar and Yoyo explore the river just as Tamar's father happens upon them, "And I couldn't look at him, because I was watching the other man's face and he was watching mine", and invites them into his home. After settling everyone down, Tamar's father begins to unravel the secret he has kept hidden since the day he left Tamar and her mother. He tells Tamar and Yoyo that her supposed grandfather, William Hyde, is not actually her grandfather. Her real grandfather is Tamar (Christaan Boogart), who was killed in World War II by a man named Koop de Vries, and was led to do so by William Hyde, or Dart as he was known during that time. It takes Tamar awhile to take all this in; "I couldn’t imagine how he could have kept all that stuff dammed up inside him all this time without being at least three parts crazy", and she even forgives Hyde. In the epilogue, she ends up marrying Yoyo.
Themes.
For the "New York Times Book Review", Elizabeth Devereaux noted on the topic of major themes of "Tamar" that "river metaphors and allusions flow freely, suggesting a world of secrets and false identities that is 'slippery, changeable, fluid'", and that "the reclamation of identity is a tortured process." Peet himself explained that "my books are about discovering or inventing who you are."
Regional celebration.
In Merseyside an edition of "Tamar" was Wirral Paperback of the Year in 2007. Mal Peet met with some of the teenagers who took part in Wirral Paperback of the Year on 7 March 2008. "Tamar" was part of Liverpool Reads in 2008.
Style.
"Booklist" complimented how "Peet's plot is tightly constructed, and striking, descriptive language, full of metaphor, grounds the story." "School Library Journal" points out how "Peet deftly handles the developing intrigue that totally focuses readers". "School Library Journal" also compliments how "Tamar" is "masterfully crafted, written in cinematic prose, and peopled by well-drawn, multi-dimensional characters." In the novel New York Times Reviewer Elizabeth Devereaux praises how "Mal Peet shows both restraint and daring." Also, "Booklist" praised the novel's "intricate wrapping of wartime dramar and secrecy." "Booklist Publications" added to the praise by saying how "Strikingly edcriptive language grounds this dramatic novel." "Kirkus Reviews" called the writing "Beautifully detailed." Kirkus Reviews also complimented "Tamar" by commenting "Stark in its realistic portrayal of the horror and random violence of war [and its d]escriptions of the daily brutality of merely surviving."
Reception.
Literary critics remarked on Mal Peet's exceptional storytelling. Jan Mark wrote: "This sombre and distinguished book is as fine a piece of storytelling as you are likely to read this year", and "The Bookseller" review said: "Beautifully written and absolutely gripping, this is exceptional storytelling."
Kirkus Reviews complimented the book as "beautifully detailed writing." Booklist Publications agreed, saying "complex and surprising, this [novel] grows richer with each reading." Roger Sutton of "The Horn Book Magazine" commented that "readers might think that they've wandered into Ken Follett territory for this novel." He also wrote and explained that "the writing is dramatic, and the covert Resistance activities are suspenseful and rich with the details of undercover warfare." However, he complains "["Tamar"] is a satisfying genre fiction, it is only when the book introduces the YA slant 100 pages in that things become a bit awkward." School Library Journal disagrees though, and praised the novel as "intense and riveting" and called "Tamar" an "extraordinary, gripping novel." The emotional side of the novel has been acknowledged by Booklist, who commented that "Peet's sturdy, emotionally resonant characterization and damatic background will pull readers forward," and "despite foreshadowing the outcome is still a stunner." "Tamar" has also been noted by the "North Devon Journal", who said "the story, a mixture of fact and fiction, will make its way into your mental nooks and crannies like ivy spreading across a wall," and that "this novel, like the ivy, will cling to your emotions." Kliatt mentioned that "Tamar" "read like a thriller, with the action of wartime (Winter, 1945)," and that it was "demanding, carefully written story, with dreadful details of betrayal and violence."
It was considered to transcend the category of young-adult fiction: "This is an outstanding novel. Outstanding in every regard. It establishes Peet as a novelist of immense gift and versatility, for no two novels could be more different than "Keeper" and "Tamar" and yet be so equally brilliant. ... Tamar is a novel worthy of standing with the very best of contemporary British fiction."
The American Library Association named "Tamar" one of the top ten books for young adults in 2008.
References.
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Peet, Mal. "Tamar : a novel of espionage, passion, and betrayal". First U.S. edition. Cambridge (US): Candlewick Press. 2007. . (424 pages)