“The Occupied Garden, written by two sisters, offers a window to anyone who is interested in history, in this case the history of Holland during World War II. It covers Hitler’s rise to power, the invasion of Holland, the five-year Occupation that followed, the fate of the Jews and how the Dutch citizenry as a whole coped, especially the authors’ devoutly Christian grandparents. They would have been proud of this beautifully crafted, meticulously researched book.” --Johanna Reiss, Newbery Honor Book Award-winning author of The Upstairs Room and A Hidden Life: A Memoir of August 1969
“In this heroic gesture of recovery of family history, the authors not only recreate their grandparents’ world, but the horror of life in Nazi-occupied Holland. History is retold in relentless detail through the tragedies lived by people who become as real to us as our own family. The Occupied Garden is a triumphant refusal to accept the silence that erases the past.” --Rosemary Sullivan, author of Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille
“A dramatic and moving account of the World War II occupation of the Netherlands and its subsequent liberation.” --Mark Zuehlke, author of Terrible Victory
“Truly gripping. . . . This is intimate history: the writers recover not only the facts, but the tastes, smells, and lived experiences of events that today almost defy belief.” --Quill & Quire
“Personal, unsentimental, intensely compelling . . . these reconstructed lives just hum with authenticity.” --The Globe & Mail
“Moving and lyrical . . . If this book were less carefully crafted and not as well written, it would be mere family history. Instead, it’s also the history of a country---and of the people who lived in it during a terrible time.” --The Montreal Gazette
“A ‘must-read’ for students of modern history and anyone who grew up in Europe during the Second World War.” --The Record
