May the People Know I'm Here? is set in Amsterdam in the 1940s, where the Nazis are hunting for Jewish hideaways, although they are not the only predators seeking out the weak and persecuted.
Four-year-old Anka is trapped in the hands of cruel protectors, while Rachel, a young woman who has already lost everyone she holds dear, adopts a new identity to try to escape detection.
They each make one tiny mistake and are picked up and transported out. Anka and Rachel share a fiery spirit but this will not be enough. The odds against their survival are enormous.
Those who are taken never come back. Only through an astonishing series of events will they find sanctuary.
May the People Know I'm Here? sits on the same shelf in the book store as The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman, The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss and Carly Schabowski's The Watchmaker of Dachau.
Genre: FICTION / Historical / World War II
May the People Know I'm Here? is new but has garnered some excellent reviews.
“Wow, a triumph! A truly unique experience, I can honestly say I’ve never read a book like it.” Jeanne Revest, headmistress and English teacher
“A compelling and insightful story. Anka is a character you won’t forget!” Amy Heydenrych – Author of Shame on You and The Pact
“An exhausting read…a story that has stuck with me even after finishing the book. Powerful. Illuminating.” Tracy A. Grogan – Author of Flotsam
"But the real force of the book is its withering clarity." Amazon reviewer "Bookworm"
Her Mama and Papa are frightened. Every grown-up she has ever known in her whole life has been frightened.
It’s not that they tell her they are frightened. She just senses it. They speak in whispers. Sudden noises make them jump and then they rush to the nearest window and peer out through the net curtain to see what’s going on.
Her Mama and Papa are allowed near the windows. It is only Anka who is forbidden. So, Anka gets scared too. She doesn’t know what there is to be scared of but, if the grown-ups around her are worried about something, she supposes she should be too.
There is no heating in the roof space. She is wearing four layers of clothing on top, but she is still cold and she can hardly feel her toes. She reaches down to check they are still there. They are icy to the touch. It must be freezing outside. Anka has not been outside for a long time. The few times she can remember being out, it was dark and the person carrying her or holding her by the hand was in a hurry. Before she came to this house, she lived with a Mama and Papa who didn’t make her hide when they had visitors. Then, one day, a stranger pointed at Anka and asked her Mama, “Who’s that little girl?”
Her Mama replied that she was a little girl they had adopted in India.
Soon after that, she was moved on to another Mama and Papa.
India?
Is that true?
Anka doesn’t think it is, but why would her Mama tell a lie?
Why wouldn’t her Mama just say Anka was her Mama’s daughter? The stranger could have asked Anka. She knows exactly what to say.
Just as everyone always tells her, over and over and over again, when anyone asks Anka what her name is, she is to say, “My name is Anka”.
And if they ask her who her Mama is, she is to point to her Mama and say, “this is my Mama”.
Whoever her Mama is at that time.
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Portuguese
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Translation in progress.
Translated by Ieda esch
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Ana Esther Rodriguez Liebana
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Author review: Very happy. Excellent communication during the process and timely completion. |
