An Address in Amsterdam: A Novel

by Mary Dingee Fillmore

Overview

A Kirkus Indie Book of the Month
Winner, Sarton Women's Book Award for Historical Fiction

When the Germans invade her city, Rachel Klein is a teenager falling in love. Within a year, she's delivering illegal papers and confronting Nazi soldiers. In this “compelling and touching tale” (Laurel Corona), Rachel finds her courage and faces wrenching choices.

Follow Rachel Klein as she faces double danger as a young Jewish woman and resistance worker in the Amsterdam of Anne Frank.

On May 10, 1940, the Nazi bombers blast the night and shatter Rachel Klein's sleep—along with her life as she knew it. She's eighteen, and falling in love with a Gentile in a secret relationship. As the Nazi terror escalates, her romance deepens quickly, and so does her boyfriend's involvement with student protests. Soon, he must disappear rather than face arrest. When Rachel witnesses the first roundup of 425 Jewish men in the Jonas Daniel Meijerplein, she knows that she too must act, and joins the resistance.

Despite the ever greater danger as the Nazis tighten their grip on the city, Rachel makes daily deliveries of illegal papers to addresses all over Amsterdam. She ingeniously evades the Nazis and their Dutch collaborators for months, although she has some close calls. As the roundups intensify, Rachel agonizes about whether to go into hiding. Ultimately she persuades her parents to accompany her to a dank basement, where she gets to know herself and them in a different way, and meets a new man.

A young woman can find her courage in any situation, no matter how terrible, and love is always a possibility.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631521348
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	859,615
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Mary Dingee Fillmore fell in love with Amsterdam in 2001 and has been returning there and pondering its complex history ever since. A longtime professional facilitator for nonprofits and government, she gives talks for the Vermont Humanities Council, titled “Anne Frank’s Neighbors: What Did They Do?” and writes at www.seehiddenamsterdam.com.

Editorial Reviews

In her well-researched novel, Fillmore vividly portrays Amsterdam, Rachel, and her family... An intense tale that gives the tragedies of history a Dutch dwelling and a family name.” —Kirkus
“This deeply spectacular literary fireworks show of hope, strength and renewal will captivate every reader at the first word.” —Bookstr, “10 Historical Fiction Reads to Devour” “An Address in Amsterdam is the biggest literary event for the historical fiction genre this year...” —Redbook Magazine
“Hey historical fiction aficionados...add this profound book to your Amazon cart immediately.” —PopSugar, “Fiction Reads to Add to Your Fall Reading List”
“This novel demonstrates that bravery and love can help to conquer even the most hopeless situations.” —Buzzfeed, “5 Historical Fiction Reads to Curl Up with” “Debut author Mary Fillmore serves up a complex, engrossing and gorgeous historical fiction tale.” —Brit+Co, “11 Fall Reads to Keep You As Warm As Your PSL” “This is one of the stories that will hover just outside my conscience for the rest of my life. Rachel is just one woman, but her experiences remind me of all the untold stories—the victims and persecutors, those who were complicit in their silence, and the ordinary people who lived and fought and died, transformed into heroes through their willingness to risk everything for justice and freedom.” —Books J'adore “Fillmore paints a chilling portrait of how venomous ideology, backed by brute force, gradually infiltrates a seemingly enlightened society. Ample research informs her tale of Rachel's coming of age — a severely embattled one, but not without its moments of hope and joy.” —Seven Days Vermont, “Page 32” “Fillmore’s tale of powerlessness and defiance, of death and love during the years of Occupation is woven into the rich tapestry of sights and sounds of the inner city of Amsterdam. Her language is that of a poet: sensuous and rich in metaphors and similes that reach deep. That is why I could not put the book down!” —Laureen Nussbaum, Professor emerita, Portland State University, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
“The taut drama of the novel stands in counterpoint to Mary Fillmore's gentle intimacy with her characters. She knows these people as though she has lived among them—walking down every street to every address, feeling every heartbeat and breath, sharing a vision that rejects easy optimism while holding on, always, to hope.” —Diane Lefer, award-winning author of The Fiery Alphabet; co-author of The Blessing Next to the Wound: A story of art, activism, and transformation
“An Address in Amsterdam is a compelling story of the Jewish experience during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Filled with richly detailed descriptions, obviously based on extensive research, the book follows the activities of Rachel Klein as she navigates the personal challenges of her emerging adulthood and the complex social dangers of working in the Dutch resistance movement.” —Amy Belding Brown, author of Mr. Emerson’s Wife, Flight of the Sparrow
“An Address in Amsterdam immerses the reader in both the light and beauty of the city and the dark, ugly atmosphere of the Nazi occupation. The protagonist, teenaged Rachel Klein, must find her way between the extremes, which makes her breathtaking story impossible to put down.” —Katherine Bradley Johnson, NextReads Bibliographer, NoveList, a division of EBSCO
“In spite of the fact that An Address in Amsterdam is a novel, and frankly that word and the Holocaust in one breath bothers me, Ms. Fillmore has done a great job. Her research is impeccable. Moreover, It's an excellent read!” —Johanna Reiss, author of The Upstairs Room, The Journey Back and A Hidden Life
“This powerful novel seldom left my hands. Based on years of research, Fillmore’s story gets at a universal truth about the dangers of prejudice.” —A.J. Mayhew, author of The Dry Grass of August
“Mary Fillmore was ahead of her time when she realized that this story is hers and everyone’s story. She has given thirteen years to writing An Address in Amsterdam, and she has also given her life. This act of witnessing and great courage offers us sanctuary as we search for all the possible ways to survive the rising blood tide of brutality, violence, and death. These times demand ethical scrutiny; and the question that Fillmore asked herself, that her characters asked, that the Dutch asked, is the question we must each ask ourselves: collude, collaborate or resist? Fillmore challenges us and sustains us simultaneously.” —Deena Metzger, author of Entering the Ghost River: Meditations on the Theory and Practice of Healing Writing For Your Life: A Guide and a Companion into the Inner World
“This compelling and emotionally touching tale brings the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands to light, told through the eyes of a courageous young woman determined to put aside her fears and risk all for the noble cause of resistance.” —Laurel Corona, author of The Mapmaker’s Daughter and Until Our Last Breath: A Holocaust Story of Love and Partisan Resistance “The Amsterdam of World War II comes alive in this deeply-imagined, well-researched story. Thoughtful and courageous Rachel compels us to travel along streets and canals with her as she confronts the challenges and terrors of the German occupation. I finished the book feeling as if I had also lived through those harrowing years.” —Jane Pincus, co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves “Written with verve and integrity, An Address in Amsterdam is the best kind of historical fiction: a wonderful read with a marvelous heroine who challenges us to take action in our own time. Don’t miss this gripping, intricately detailed account of Jewish resistance to the Nazi occupation of wartime Amsterdam.” —Joyce Antler, author of You Never Call! You Never Write!: A History of the Jewish Mother, Samuel Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture, Brandeis University

From the Publisher

2016-12-30
A teenage Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam joins the Resistance and hides out with her parents in this debut novel. This story's prologue, set in July 1942, reveals that Rachel Klein—raised to be "a polite Jewish doctor's daughter"—delivers papers and messages for the Dutch Resistance, and she is almost caught. Returning to May and June 1940, as the Nazis are invading the Netherlands, the tale traces the fortunes of Rachel and her family. Her father is optimistic and doesn't want to leave his practice; her more radical mother wants to escape to England but won't leave her husband. As the Nazi occupation settles in, people try to live normally and hope for the best while increasingly draconian restrictions are put upon Jews, which develop into violence, roundups, and disturbing tales of work camps. Rachel and Michiel Drogt, a Christian university student, fall in love, but he chooses to go underground and fight the Nazis. Seeing the Nazis in action, Rachel agrees with his decision. She's recruited by the Resistance and begins her perilous assignments, finding courage in performing her duties. After the near capture of the prologue, Rachel determines to get herself and her parents into hiding despite their reluctance, which she manages in August 1942. For nearly nine long months they live crammed into a cellar. The family must relocate to a safer refuge, but Nazis are on their scent and closing in. In her well-researched novel, Fillmore vividly portrays Amsterdam, Rachel, and her family. Of special interest is Rachel's Resistance work: the details of the missions and how she handles the dangers. The author sees the complications in people and situations; though Rachel is heroic, for example, she's also partly motivated by daydreams of her valor being acknowledged. Similarly, Fillmore doesn't disguise the squalid conditions of the family's cramped hiding place. At the same time, her poetic language displays Rachel's sensibility nicely: her "longing for Michiel was still a low ache like a cello's part in an orchestra—faint but nearly ever-present, beautiful and painful." A bibliography and discussion questions are included. An intense tale that gives the tragedies of history a Dutch dwelling and a family name.

Kirkus Reviews