“[A] gripping tale about living in war’s barbaric shadow, and how moments of decency and heroism and glimpses of the natural world sustain us” (Jess Walter, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Financial Lives of the Poets).
In turn-of-the-century South Africa, fourteen-year-old Lettie, her younger brother, and her mother are Dutch Afrikaner settlers who have been taken from their farm by British soldiers and are being held in a concentration camp. It is early in the Boer War, and Lettie’s father, grandfather, and brother are off fighting the British as thousands of Afrikaner women and children are detained. The camps are cramped and disease ridden; the threat of illness and starvation are ever present. Determined to dictate their own fate, Lettie and her family give each other strength and hope as they fight to survive amid increasingly dire conditions.
Brave and defiant, Lettie finds comfort in memories of stargazing with her grandfather, in her plan to be a writer, and in surprising new friendships that will both nourish and challenge her. A beautiful testament to love, family, and sheer force of will, The Lost History of Stars was inspired by Dave Boling’s grandfather’s own experience as a soldier during the Boer War. Lettie is a figure of abiding grace, and her story is richly drawn and impossible to forget.
“A heart-wrenching yet ultimately uplifting story of an extraordinary young woman and her family, who are forced to endure unimaginable hardship at the hands of a brutal war. Dave Boling’s brilliant novel is a meditation on the resiliency of the soul and the spirit, and will long be remembered.” —Garth Stein, New York Times–bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain
