The Handkerchief Map

This Young Adult novella is imagined as letters written by three young people living in Europe at the end of WWII. Each struggles to survive and make sense of the War. The lost Russian girl, Helga, writes to her friend, Olga, about the desperation she feels. The Nazi boy soldier, Franz, writes his confused feelings to his mother. Susanna, incarcerated in Bergen-Belsen, longs for her lost husband while she awaits knowledge of her children.

The legacy of the Holocaust and World War II lives on in the awareness of the current generation of Australian youth. More than a coming-of-age tale, The Handkerchief Map is a moving narrative about what happens when humans forget, and remember, that they are all part of the same tribe. As their journeys intersect over the course of the story, the hopes and plans of the characters leave the reader with a sense of optimism.