num_pages: 352
description: From a forgotten moment in history comes an inspiring novel about finding strength and courage in the most unimaginable places. In turn-of-the-century South Africa fourteen-year-old Lettie her younger brother and her mother are Dutch Afrikaner settlers who have been taken from their farm by British soldiers and are being held in a concentration camp. It is early in the Boer War and Letties father grandfather and brother are off fighting the British as thousands of Afrikaner women and children are detained. The camps are cramped and disease ridden; the threat of illness and starvation are ever present. Determined to dictate their own fate Lettie and her family give each other strength and hope as they fight to survive amid increasingly dire conditions.Brave and defiant Lettie finds comfort in memories of stargazing with her grandfather in her plan to be a writer and in surprising new friendships that will both nourish and challenge her. A beautiful testament to love family and sheer force of will The Lost History of Stars was inspired by Dave Bolings grandfathers own experience as a soldier during the Boer War. Lettie is a figure of abiding grace and her story is richly drawn and impossible to forget.
language: English
title: The Lost History of Stars
publisher: Algonquin Books