He nods. ‘I’m so glad that we did. I know you’ve been in touch with my mother, but I just wanted to say that you did a wonderful job with her memoirs. You brought her story out so well.’
‘Thank you. It was a story that she wanted to tell. But we had a very good rapport and I think that helped.’
‘It must have done. She told us that you were a lovely “ghost”.’ Vincent puts his hand in the bag again. ‘But I was at the farm last week and I told my mother that I’d be seeing you today …’ He takes out a small parcel and hands it to me. ‘Before I left, she asked me to give you this.’
I look at it, puzzled, as he hands it to me. ‘What is it?’ It’s heavy.
‘I’ve no idea. She’d already wrapped it and wouldn’t tell me. She just said that it was something that she wants you to have.’
Still bemused, I untie the string and pull off the paper. As it falls away, my heart skips a beat.
‘She wants me to have this?’ I murmur.
‘She does.’ Vincent looks at it. ‘Is this the lizard that she talks about in the book?’
‘It is.’ It gleams softly in my hand.
‘Then I know how much it’s meant to her.’
I try to speak, but the words won’t come. ‘Please thank her,’ I manage to say. ‘I’ll write to her, but please, please thank her, and tell her that I’ll treasure it.’
‘I will. She’ll be happy to know that I saw you; you’re looking very well.’
‘You are,’ Nina says. ‘You’re positively glowing, Jenni.’ I smile, still gazing at the lizard, unable to believe that Klara had wanted to give me something so precious. I force myself to tune back into the rest of the conversation. Nina is asking Rick about the house that we’re interested in. ‘You were going to tell us about it,’ she says.
‘Oh yes,’ he answers. ‘Well … the house itself is nothing special – it’s just modern; but the garden is fantastic, with a big, wide lawn. It’ll be great for entertaining,’ he adds, but I know that Rick is really thinking, longingly, of children, playing and laughing. And I can see them too. But now, instead of fading like ghosts, they’re running towards us. Running across the grass.
I open my arms.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my brilliant editor, Thalia Suzuma, for her belief in the novel, for her inspired editorial guidance, and for her unfailing support for me as a writer. My gratitude to her is unbounded. I’m also grateful to Sarah Ritherdon, and to everyone at HarperCollins – Kate Elton, Martha Ashby, Claire Palmer, Lucy Upton and Jaime Frost. Huge thanks, as ever, to my agent Clare Conville, and to the terrific team at Conville and Walsh, especially Henna Silvennoinen, Alexandra Nicholl, Kinga Burger, Jake Smith-Bosanquet and Alexander Cochran. In the US, I’m indebted to my wonderful editor at Random House Inc., Kate Miciak, for her invaluable input. I would also like to thank Maria Adriana Boerstra and Louise Staël von Holstein, who shared with me their memories of internment on Java in camps Solo, Moentilan, Ambarawa, Tjihapit, Kampong Makassar and Tjideng. In Cornwall I’d like to thank Charlotte and Simon Taffinder of Curgurrell Farm for illuminating me about life on a coastal farm, and Robert Pepper of the National Coastwatch at Pednvadan Point, Portscatho for telling me about tides. Grateful thanks to my friends and neighbours at Rosevine – especially Jo and Alan Mullet, Jane and Julian Noad, and Tim and Hazel Brocklebank at the Rosevine Hotel. Roland Bosch kindly corrected the Dutch translations, and Louise Clairmonte and Eliana Haworth, once again, read the manuscript along the way. Finally, huge thanks and love to my very patient and indulgent family – Greg, Alice and Edmund, and Freddie and George.
The following books provided helpful background during the course of my research:
Tjideng Reunion: A Memoir of World War II on Java by Boudewijn van Oort; Trafford Publishing.
The Way of a Boy – A Memoir of Java by Ernest Hillen; Penguin Books
Java Lost: A Child Imprisoned, Parts I and II by Jannie Wilbrink; Friesen Press
The Hidden Passport by Phyllis Pilgrim; Phyllis Pilgrim
The House at Ampasiet by Paula Kogel; Matador
Eight Prison Camps: A Dutch Family in Japanese Java by Dieuwke Wendelaar Bonga; Ohio University Press
Silenced Voices: Uncovering a Family’s Colonial History in Indonesia by Inez Hollander; Ohio University Press
Stolen Childhoods: The Untold Story of the Children Interned by the Japanese in the Second World War by Nicola Tyrer; Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Our Childhood in the Former Colonial Dutch East Indies by Ralph Ockerse and Evelijn Blaney; Ralph Ockerse and Evelijn Blaney
The Forgotten Ones: Women and Children Under Nippon by Shirley Fenton Huie; Angus and Robertson, an imprint of HarperCollins
The Defining Years of the Dutch East Indies 1943–1949 Edited by Jan A. Krancher
The Internment of Western Civilians under the Japanese 1941–1945: A Patchwork of Internment by Bernice Archer. Hong Kong University Press
Through a Harsh Dawn by Hendrik L. Leffelaar; Frederick Muller Limited
My P.O.W. Story by Jan Berg
Ghostwriting by Andrew Crofts; A & C Black Publishers Limited
Memories of the Dutch East Indies: From Plantation Society to Prisoner of Japan by Elizabeth von Kamden
Dark Skies Over Paradise by Louise Priesman-Bogaardt, published by Traford.
About the Author
ISABEL WOLFF was born in Warwickshire, England, and studied English at Cambridge. A former broadcaster and journalist, she is the author of nine bestselling novels, which are published in thirty languages. She has been a finalist for the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award and for the American Libraries Association Reading List in the women’s fiction category. She lives in London with her family.
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ADVANCE PRAISE FOR GHOSTWRITTEN
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Credits
Cover photo: Reilika Landen / Arcangel Images
Copyright
Ghostwritten
Copyright © Isabel Wolff 2014.
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EPUB Edition April 2014 ISBN 9781443410021
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
FIRST CANADIAN EDITION
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s and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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