Snow on the Tulips by Liz Tolsma
The Netherlands faces occupation by Nazi Germany
This story poses the age-old question – when to fight for freedom. Main characters, Cornelia de Vries and Gerrit Laninga, stand at odds on this while they endure Nazi Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. Cornelia barely holds herself together after losing her husband and parents to the invaders. Gerrit brazenly defies the occupying forces even after he narrowly survives an execution squad. Thrown together after Cornelia’s brother rescues Gerrit, the two try to continue coping in their own ways. Things get difficult when attraction bubbles between them, and this brings disaster closer to home.
How did people react to the occupation?
It’s easy to look back at this devastating war and say, “I would have acted in such and such a way.” In truth, none of us knows how we would have acted at that time. Author Liz Tolsma pulls multiple characters through the tough choices of how to respond to an occupying force, having many of them react in different ways. Even when the characters began with the same foundation, they do not all make the same choices.
- One character vows to destroy the Nazi regime because of the evils it inflicted on others.
- Another quietly resists by hiding those whose lives are in danger.
- Still another insists on complying with every order because it comes from the governing powers.
Every decision threatens lives, relationships, love, and hope. Despite knowing how World War Two ended, the reader isn’t quite sure how each character’s tale will end.
Does “Snow on the Tulips” hold true to history?
War courts tragedy, and “Snow on the Tulips” keeps true to this while delivering a solid story. Perhaps the only holdback is that the tragedies happen around the two main characters more than to them. Still, the tension builds throughout the novel as the characters push towards their liberation. Amidst it all, they lean on the Scriptures for wisdom and comfort amidst terror and heartache.
The characters developed here have a basis in several real people, even the one who survived an execution squad. Real people faced these horrors. Real people fought to understand why it all happened. Real people were swayed from one side to the other. Real people chose to fight for freedom.
Let me know what you think of “Snow on the Tulips” in the comments section below.
