Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering
sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights
hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and
every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the
Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her
illegal work as a small act of rebellion.
On a routine
delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs.
Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older
woman's frantic plea to find a person--a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen
had been hiding, who has vanished from a secret room without a trace.
Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but
is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations
that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the
horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate
action.
Beautifully written,
intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue
Coat is an extraordinary novel about bravery, grief, and love in
impossible times.