Dave Boling

This novel is centered around the Boer War in South Africa during the turn of the century. Lettie and her family are divided by the conflict - her father and older brother join the fight while Lettie and the rest finds themselves in a concentration camp. Conditions are bad and yet Lettie develops a complex view of the British her family is fighting. I appreciate the author's drawing on their own family history and highlighting a lesser known conflict in this novel. That said, I just never really got into this novel.… (altro)

The Lost History of the Stars by Dave Boling is set in turn-of-the-century South Africa and follows a Boer family through the trials of the 1899 - 1902 war with the British. Fourteen year old Lettie, her stern and duty-bound mother, a younger brother and sister are Dutch Afrikaner settlers who are forcibly moved to a concentration camp after their farm was burned. Lettie’s father, grandfather and older brother are off fighting. Thousands of Afrikaner women and children were placed in these cramped and disease ridden camps for the duration.

We are given a detailed view of this family’s life, both before and during the war. Conditions in the camp are horrific and while Lettie tries to be brave and defiant, she yearns for her old life and quieter times. Her mother hates the British but Lettie has come to realize that they are not all bad, some are much more understanding and compassionate that she has been led to believe.

The Lost History of the Stars is a good novel of historical fiction and paints a vivid picture of people caught up in the shadow of a brutal war. I found it both interesting and educational but although it is beautifully written, I never quite felt that the characters were developed to the point where they became real.
Written as a testament to family, love and the will to survive, the author has based this novel on his grandfather’s experience during the Boer War.… (altro)

Lunes 26 de abril de 1937. Las bombas se oyen silbar en el despejado cielo de Guernica… Los edificios, los paseos, el mercado… lugares que serán reconstruidos, aunque las personas muertas no podrán ser nunca reemplazadas. Y es que hay momentos de la historia que determinan el destino de todo un pueblo. A los cuatro vientos está en pie el caserío Errotaberri, en las alturas del monte Oiz, conservado generación tras generación por los Ansotegui, una familia vasca que nos descubrirá el amor indestructible, la amistad enternecedora y la importancia de las tradiciones, pilares de su hogar y de su vida. Los tres hermanos de esta novela conseguirán apropiarse de la ternura y del cariño de los lectores. La familia Ansotegui se erige como baluarte de todas las familias vascas y, en consecuencia, de todas las familias del mundo. La historia más real y la ficción más asombrosa se entremezclan en este soberbio cuadro literario, "pintado" por Dave Boling a la maniére de Picasso, en el que nos desvela la imagen de un pueblo fuerte y orgulloso donde la tierra y el amor se unen en la lucha por la identidad.… (altro)