The Handkerchief Map

In this extraordinary novel set in World War II, three characters reveal their most intimate thoughts on the conflict. Franz, a young Nazi soldier has begun to question the rightness of the cause. Helga is a Russian girl bent on joining the resistance. Susanna is a Jewess who has been separated from her husband and children and condemned to the cruelty of a concentration camp. This work is even more remarkable for the fact that the author wrote it while still a high school student in Australia, with no direct contact with survivors of the war. Several years on, she returned to it with benefit of further research and experience to create a gripping tale that recalls The Diary of Anne Frank.