Overview

A shocking and moving war memoir told from the perspective of a young child interned in a brutally violent Japanese war camp during World War Two. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas meets Rabbit-Proof Fence in this startling and unique autobiography of a childhood spent in captivity. ""Why didn't you try to escape?"" That was all she said. I had imagined my grandmother telling us how lovely it was to see us at last. I saw again in my mind's eye the barbed wire fences and the soldiers with the glistening bayonets, and felt once more that excruciating fear in the pit of my stomach. Try to escape? Lots of people had tried to escape. When the Japanese invaded the beautiful Indonesian island of Java during the Second World War Clara Kelly was four years old. Her family was separated, her father sent to work on the Burma railway, and she together with her mother and her two brothers, one a six-week-old baby, was sent to a 'women's camp'. They were interned there until the end of the war. Clara's descriptions of the appalling deprivations and impersonal brutality of the camp, easily recognisable as the same techniques used in the infamously cruel Japanes prisoner of war camps - standing in the baking heat for hours of 'Tenko' role-call, living on one cup of rice a day - are countered by the courage and resilience shown by all the internees, most poignantly her own mother.

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9780099445531

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Fascinating * People Magazine * Kelly's survival and her book is, in effect, the most moving tribute to her remarkable mother, whose courage and indomitable spirit kept the family alive * Daily Mail * A wrenching memoir - these stories clearly demonstrate that terrible atrocities are committed - justified even - in the name of war * Seattle Times * A moving, immediate account of a relatively unknown wartime drama - unforgettable * Booklist * The Flamboya Tree is that rare treasure - a memoir so powerful and vivid that it draws the past into the present and makes us all history's creatures. * Amanda Foreman, winner of the Whitbread Award for Biography *

This is the simply told but moving story of a family's incarceration in a Japanese concentration camp during the Second World War. Clara and her Dutch family had led a charmed life on Java, where her father was the managing director of a trading company. It all came to an abrupt end however when the Japanese invaded and the family came to terms with the fact that four-year-old Clara, her mother and two brothers, one just a baby, would soon be rounded up and confined in one of the camps whilst their father was sent to work on the Burma railway. When the order finally came, it was in the high-pitched and angry scream familiar to all from old war films, and which was to characterize all communications from the Japanese over the next three years. Clara's mother was given just two days to gather together everything that could be crammed into a suitcase that the family might need for an internment of unknown duration as well as two mattresses which would effectively become their home. Even at this stage, her mother showed the clear thinking and foresight which would get her and her children through the years of deprivation as she packed sheets and ropes rather than clothes and shoes which she knew would be outgrown in a matter of months. Once in the camp, the inmates were subjected to the most appallingly inhumane treatment which many did not survive as they had to endure hours standing in the beating sun for Tenko - or roll call - during which heads must be bowed before their Japanese imperial masters. Rations consisted of a cup of rice a day and Clara's mother was assigned the duty of keeping the camp drains running, a task which all too often involved climbing into the reeking sewers and unblocking them with her bare hands. The starvation, torture and degradation of the camps have been well documented before, but this moving tribute by a daughter to the courage and dignity of her mother is well worth reading. (Kirkus UK)

The Flamboya Tree is that rare treasure - a memoir so powerful and vivid that it draws the past into the present and makes us all history's creatures. * Amanda Foreman, winner of the Whitbread Award for Biography * A moving, immediate account of a relatively unknown wartime drama - unforgettable * Booklist * A wrenching memoir - these stories clearly demonstrate that terrible atrocities are committed - justified even - in the name of war * Seattle Times * Kelly's survival and her book is, in effect, the most moving tribute to her remarkable mother, whose courage and indomitable spirit kept the family alive * Daily Mail * Fascinating * People Magazine *

The Flamboya Tree is that rare treasure - a memoir so powerful and vivid that it draws the past into the present and makes us all history's creatures. Amanda Foreman, winner of the Whitbread Award for Biography A moving, immediate account of a relatively unknown wartime drama - unforgettable Booklist A wrenching memoir - these stories clearly demonstrate that terrible atrocities are committed - justified even - in the name of war Seattle Times Kelly's survival and her book is, in effect, the most moving tribute to her remarkable mother, whose courage and indomitable spirit kept the family alive Daily Mail Fascinating People Magazine

Author Information

Clara Olink Kelly now lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband. She spends much of her time with her children and grandchildren. The Flamboya Tree is her first book.

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