The Handkerchief Map

The troubled legacy of the Holocaust and World War II lives on in the awareness of the current generation of Australian youth, as this narrative testifies. In lyrical prose the story is imagined as letters written by three young people living in different parts of Europe at the end of WWII. The tale weaves together the lives of the characters as they survive and struggle to make sense of the War and its aftermath. They each write letters to a loved one of whose fate they are unaware. The lost Russian girl, Helga, relays to her friend, Olga, the desperation and dislocation she feels. Recounting his confronting emotions and loyalties, the Nazi boy soldier, Franz, writes home to his mother. Susanna, the Jewess, incarcerated in Bergen-Belsen, longs for her lost husband while she awaits knowledge of the fate of her children. More than a coming-of-age tale, The Handkerchief Map is a moving narrative about what happens when humans forget, and remember, that they are all part of the same tribe This Young Adult novella is imagined as letters written by three young people living in Europe at the end of WWII. Each struggles to survive and make sense of the War. The lost Russian girl, Helga, writes to her friend, Olga, about the desperation she feels. The Nazi boy soldier, Franz, writes his confused feelings to his mother. Susanna, incarcerated in Bergen-Belsen, longs for her lost husband while she awaits knowledge of her children. The legacy of the Holocaust and World War II lives on in the awareness of the current generation of Australian youth. More than a coming-of-age tale, The Handkerchief Map is a moving narrative about what happens when humans forget, and remember, that they are all part of the same tribe. As their journeys intersect over the course of the story, the hopes and plans of the characters leave the reader with a sense of optimism. A coming-of-age epistolary novel written as a series of letters from people involved in World War II writing to their loved ones.In this extraordinary novel set in World War II, three characters reveal their most intimate thoughts on the conflict. Franz, a young Nazi soldier has begun to question the rightness of the cause. Helga is a Russian girl bent on joining the resistance. Susanna is a Jewess who has been separated from her husband and children and condemned to the cruelty of a concentration camp.This work is remarkable because the author wrote it while still a high school student in Australia, with no direct contact with survivors of the war. Several years on, she returned to it with the benefit of further research and experience to recreate this gripping tale. In this extraordinary novel set in World War II, three characters reveal their most intimate thoughts on the conflict. Franz, a young Nazi soldier has begun to question the rightness of the cause. Helga is a Russian girl bent on joining the resistance. Susanna is a Jewess who has been separated from her husband and children and condemned to the cruelty of a concentration camp. This work is even more remarkable for the fact that the author wrote it while still a high school student in Australia, with no direct contact with survivors of the war. Several years on, she returned to it with the benef The Handkerchief Map is an epistolary novel set during WWII and told from the point of view of three different characters: Franz, a young Nazi soldier who is beginning to question the war; Helga, a Russian girl bent on joining the resistance; and Susanna, a Jewish woman who has been separated from her husband and children and imprisoned in a concentration camp. By a teenage author, this novel is poetic yet accessible, and highlights the common humanity we all share Creates three distinct points of view on life in letter form during World War II from Helga, a German girl bent on joining the Resistance; Franz, a young Nazi soldier who begins to question the war; and Susanna, a Jewess who is imprisoned in concentration camp. Second edition of the novel written when Kiri was just a teenager.