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Title details for I'll Keep You Close by Jeska Verstegen - Available

I'll Keep You Close

by Jeska Verstegen
Bill Nagelkerke
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Jeska doesn't know why her mother keeps the curtains drawn so tightly every day.
And what exactly is she trying to drown out when she floods the house with Mozart? What are they hiding from?
When Jeska's grandmother accidentally calls her by a stranger's name, she seizes her first clue to uncovering her family's past, and hopefully to all that's gone unsaid. With the help of an old family photo album, her father's encyclopedia
collection, and the unquestioning friendship of a stray cat, the silence begins to melt into frightening clarity: Jeska's family survived a terror that they've worked hard to keep secret all her life. And somehow, it has both nothing and everything to do with her, all at once.
A true story of navigating generational trauma as a child, I'll Keep You Close is about what comes after disaster: how survivors move forward, what they bring with them when they do, and the promise of beginning again while always keeping the past close.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 9, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705046241
      • File size: 110087 KB
      • Duration: 03:49:20

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 27, 2021
      Straddling memoir and fiction, illustrator Verstegen (A New Home for Beaver) tells the story of 11-year-old Jesje uncovering the trauma of her family’s WWII tragedies. Jesje, her older sister, and their parents live in the shadow of her mother’s unexplained fears and sensitivities—to noise, to strangers, to war talk—keeping shades drawn, voices lowered, and the doorbell often unplugged. When Jesje’s Flemish grandmother, Bomma, mistakenly calls her “Hesje” and nobody will explain the name’s origin, Jesje turns investigative journalist to learn who the mysterious figure was and why her parents insist on keeping the war’s history from her. Following clues in Bomma’s photo album, as well as eavesdropping, secretly visiting Bomma, and questioning a visiting uncle, Jesje comes to understand the roots of her mother’s behaviors and her own identity. Set in the Netherlands, apparently in the early 1980s, the slim novel is imbued with hidden grief and pain, but also with the quiet joys that Jesje’s sensitive nature brings her, as she befriends a neighborhood cat, tries to save a favorite tree, and creates an imaginary island with a friend. The book’s gentle pace may discourage some, but Jesje’s steady pursuit of the truth and embracing of her legacy make for a satisfying read. Ages 8–12.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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