In a Nutshell:

First published in Dutch in 1954, The Tree and The Vine was regarded as groundbreaking and controversial.

I read about this book, along with Nine Moons thanks to the wonderful online magazine, Words without Borders.

Set in Amsterdam in 1938, the novel explores the tumultuous relationship between two very different women. In the shadow of the Nazi Occupation of Amsterdam, the narrator, Bea meets Erica through a mutual friend, they are confronted with a forbidden desire for one another. It is only when Bea discovers that Erica is half-Jewish and a member of the Dutch resistance, that Bea comes closer to accepting her own feelings. The narrative voice and tone of the novel reminded me of  Ditlevsen’s The Copenhagen Trilogy and Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend and there were notes of Murakami’s work.

It is a brilliant book that swept me away.

Themes:

Love, friendship, dis-belonging, war, Identity, power and abuse of power, societal expectations on women.

Observations:

Just like Bea, de Jong also fled Holland and ended up spending many years living in New York City.

As is common with many writers who live in one country and then emigrate to another where another language is used, de Jong felt that she had lost some of her Dutch. The translator notes at the end of the book can be found here, 

In her correspondence with editor Angèle Manteau, de Jong often mentions the tension she feels between her first language and the language in which she has become the most at home, English. “I can still write a letter [in Dutch],” she wrote in 1982, “but as soon as I want to take the conversation a bit deeper, it all goes south. My Dutch is so dotted with English that it hardly seems like Dutch anymore.”

A Quote:

“Despite the uncertainty of the times, or maybe because of it, everyone was talking about going abroad that summer. Half of the people considered the risk too great, while the other more adventurous half wanted to seize the opportunity.” – I feel that this could be applied to recent summers of 2021/2022.

Book Details:

Publisher: Transit Books

Publishing Date: 04.06.2020

Author: Dola de Jong

Dola de Jong (1911–2003) was born Dorothea Rosalie de Jong in Arnhem, The Netherlands. She worked as a dancer and a reporter before she fled the country in 1940. Settling first with her husband in Tangiers, she immigrated to the United States. She was the author of sixteen books for adults and children, including The Tree and the Vine and The Field, which won the City of Amsterdam Literature Prize in 1947.

Translator: Kristin Gehrman

Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, USA, Gehrman earned her Master’s in Language Science and Communication with a specialisation in Literary Translation from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

She now lives in The Hague, The Netherlands, where she works as a freelance translator, editor and writer. Most of her translation and editing work is literary and academic,

A bit about me!

A bit about me, my name is Jess Andoh-Thayre. I am from Brixton, South London. I currently live in Cambodia. Before living here in Cambodia, I lived in Tanzania with my husband, who is a diplomat. I have also lived in Chile and Spain. I am a French, Spanish and English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher. I recently qualified as a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator). After taking three years off to have a baby in a pandemic and also retrain, I have just returned to work as an Elementary Learning Support Teacher.