The Lost History of Stars

In his new novel, Boling tries to do for the Boer War what he did for the Spanish Civil War in his previous novel, Guernica, but with uneven dramatic results. The year is 1900 when 13-year-old Lettie, her siblings, and her mother are removed from their family farm in South Africa by British soldiers and taken to a concentration camp for Dutch settlers. Lettie’s father, grandfather, and older brother are off fighting with a Boer commando. In the camp, deprivations are many and things are especially hard on the young children, many of whom succumb to various diseases. Lettie maintains her spirits by keeping a journal and by recalling her life on the farm, especially going out at night with her grandfather to watch the stars. She also slowly becomes friendly with a British soldier, Tommy Maples, who is sickened by the way his countrymen treat the Boers. He gives her a copy of David Copperfield and introduces Lettie to the solace of great literature. Nothing good, though, can come of this relationship, which ends on an unsurprisingly tragic note. While the author does a convincing job of portraying the cruelty of the British towards their Boer captives, as well as the perspective of the Boer warriors and their kin, there is a certain narrative predictability that prevents the story from landing fully. Lettie, though, in her resilient nature might remind readers of another young South African protagonist, Peekay of Bryce Courtenay’s similarly inspiring The Power of One. [em](June) [/em]