ABOUT
THE BOOK

Lulu is five. She lives on Java with her father, a dedicated colonial doctor; her mother, a beautiful, narcissistic would-be artist; her aunt Margot; and, unexpectedly, her father’s brother, Uncle Felix. By day she plays outside. By night, when the grown-ups are asleep, she inhabits a mysterious world in which reality and fantasy merge, and human beings, animals, and plants are transformed by moonlight into gods and demons. On her nocturnal wanderings, Lulu witnesses puzzling scenes among the adults, and when she innocently describes them, commotion ensues. Suddenly, commanded by her grandfather, the family abandons the idyllic tropical base and returns to Holland. But the year is 1939, and Lulu’s family is Jewish. Forced into hiding by the German invasion, Lulu leaves childhood and enters a hostile world, sustained only by her father’s love (her mother decamped for London) and her own fierce, increasingly-tested courage.