Publishers Weekly
07/10/2017
Inspired by his own family connection to the Dutch experience of Nazi occupation during World War II, Murphy’s debut novel is a stellar account of wartime sacrifice, loss, and suspense. Beginning in 1939, this is the story of 14-year-old Jacob Koopman, son of a successful businessman, as he grows to manhood through six years of war. Jacob’s father courts German contracts, even sending his two sons to a Hitler Youth camp to curry favor with the Nazis. When war comes to Holland in 1940, Jacob’s life is disrupted. His family is destroyed, and only his Uncle Martin lives. Martin is scorned as a Nazi collaborator, but the truth, which Jacob knows, is more complex. However, Jacob is confused and conflicted—he blames the British for his mother’s death, eventually joining the German navy for revenge. As a decorated naval hero, Jacob is disgusted by being used as a propaganda tool and finally decides he has had enough of war. Jacob’s final salvation is satisfying and inspiring. As one character says, “It’s the incidents we can’t control that make us who we are.” (Sept.)
Joseph Kertes
Poignant…acts as a cautionary tale for our own times….The young Dutch boy Jacob Koopman, together with his family, lives in the middle of a morality tale, in which doing the right thing is often obscured by the need to survive. Devin Murphy has given us a moving, powerful and important work.
Nickolas Butler
Devin Murphy’s fantastic debut novel The Boat Runner is a lot of things—thrilling, tragic, well-paced—but maybe most of all, timely. With prose reminiscent of Per Petterson, The Boat Runner is a book that asks its reader, When does a person stand up? When does a normal person take action? And how does a person resist against overwhelming power? The Boat Runner is a satisfying page-turner, sure, but it is also an allegory for our time, a reminder of world war not so long ago, when fishermen, factory owners, children, and mothers became reluctant heroes, standing bravely against a sudden and twisted evil.
Nicholas Mainieri
Devin Murphy’s The Boat Runner is staggering. An epic and unknown story of World War II, it lays bare the moral impossibilities families face when bombs begin to fall. Masterful prose pairs with an uncommon sense for emotional complexity-here, Murphy renders both exploding warships and the deepest quandaries of the human heart with equal grace, with equal force. In The Boat Runner, Devin Murphy has given us a much-needed tale of redemption in dark times. Its truths will be with me for a long while.
Jonis Agee
Murphy is a rare writer whose prose rings with authority and beauty as it weaves the devastating story of children coming of age in the darkest hours of the twentieth century. Every page is alive with discovery, surprise, and ultimately, the mystery of what drives the human heart. The electricity which sets this story on its journey continues to crackle and spark long after the lights begin to go out across Europe, one after another, until we finally understand the cost and meaning of resistance, our only weapon against the tyranny that threatens to destroy civilization. This is an unforgettable tale of human triumph.
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2017-06-20
An ambitious coming-of-age story centered on a Dutch family dealing with personal tragedy and the German occupation during World War II.It's the summer of 1939, but the rumblings across Europe barely reach Jacob Koopman, Murphy's 14-year-old narrator, as he enjoys the prosperous life that his father's light-bulb factory has brought the family. He's close to his year-older brother, Edwin; has a tattooed rogue in his Uncle Martin, who runs a fishing boat on the North Sea; and even enjoys a stint at a Hitler Youth camp, where the father sends the boys to curry favor for a big deal with Volkswagen. Then Hitler invades Poland on September 1. Edwin disappears during an air raid, and the father must flee when his industrial sabotage is discovered. Uncle Martin enlists Jacob in violent actions against the Germans that disturb the boy, but it's a Royal Air Force raid on his hometown that persuades him, just shy of 18, to enlist in the German army. There he finds himself in a naval program involving midget submarines carrying a single torpedo and sent off on solo missions with what turn out to be rather low chances of success. At a critical moment, Uncle Martin reappears. Murphy throws so much at this impressionable, tormented Dutch teenager that it's a wonder he doesn't crack up. When he finally comes to question loyalties once rooted in family and country, he has embarked on a trek across Europe and another string of engaging adventures. The ending—or endings—may well provoke anything from quibbling to all-night debate. Murphy's debut novel is a purposely limited view of war, as was The Red Badge of Courage, but strong characters and compelling narrative convey the impact well beyond one family. An impressive debut.
