This is a demanding book even for a teenager who reads widely. The dual story, set in World War II and 1995, gradually unfolds to tell us how the course of past events in the life of (code-name) Tamar in the Second World War affects the life of Tamar, the fifteen year-old, present-day figure of the story.

When Tamar’s grandfather dies he leaves her a box containing a variety of objects which, it transpires, are clues. As the story progresses we learn that the grandfather she knew and loved has a past that has been hidden from the family. That past, as a resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied Holland, was fraught with danger, passion and tragedy. The reader follows the two stories, fifty years apart, and ultimately the complicated interweaving of the past with the present becomes clear as Tamar and her Dutch relative, Yoyo, learn exactly how one has come to influence the other.

A set of clues that appear to make no sense causes Tamar to pronounce,

‘This whole thing is some sort of puzzle, right? But we haven’t worked out anything.’ This is on page 321. With over 100 pages to go the reader has to work hard at being patient until the full facts emerge.

Much factual detail about the resistance fighters in Holland, combined with a complicated personal story of two men in love with the same woman, provides interest and intrigue. But not, I would suggest, for most teen readers. Two aspects mitigate against it being a likely choice as winner of the Carnegie Award from the viewpoint of a fourteen year-old: first, some historical knowledge is needed to make sense of the WWII story as well as an investment of effort in reading something that is slow-moving and detailed. Second, the subject matter, like Aidan Chamber’s Postcards From No Man’s Land which won in 2000, requires a level of maturity to appreciate the jealousy, passion and motivation in the love story triangle.

I admire the author’s attempt to write a rich and varied novel. For the most part he succeeds in holding the reader’s attention. The central characters are well-drawn and the story is strong. Closure regarding the outcome of the mysterious contents of the box and how they solve the puzzle of the past connecting to the present is achieved successfully. Less satisfying, however, is the inconclusive way the author treats Tamar’s parents; we wonder why her mother was kept ‘in the dark’, how her father could remain ‘lost’ and what their ultimate fate will be.

Will the book be a success? Try it for yourself and see!