1808. The Napoleonic wars. In Ghent, a draft for the Emperor’s army is looming and the respectable Hoste family is in financial trouble. 

From the very first sentence, Ironhead, or, Once a Young Lady is the engaging story of the two oldest Hoste siblings, 18-year-old Constance (“Stance”) and her entitled 14-year-old brother Pieter (Piers), whom she calls “Spiering” (ugly little fish). Unfolding in alternating chapters, their relationship and individual growth drive this gripping novel for upper YA readers.  

The Hoste household is full, with Stance, Piers, their shoemaker-turned-inventor father, harshly pious mother, and younger siblings. There’s also Grandma Blom, who “has a crack in her brain that makes her think we still live in the wig era,” and their old horse, Achilles (“a bag of bones in a saggy fur coat,” per Piers), who lives in the stable behind the house. The Hoste family isn’t warm: hair-tearing, slaps and fury abound. Stance receives much of the former.

Irreverent, irrepressible, rebellious, stubborn, and spunky: these are adjectives that describe Stance. Obedient and conventional? Not so much. Yet even the respectful, maladroit, mealy-mouthed, and morally weak Piers has enough gumption to play a prank on a teacher in order to extract revenge for impugning his father.  

Set in a filthy, brutal, classist, patriarchal time, Ironhead is exquisitely plotted, with fascinating, intricate historical detailing throughout. Early on, Stance gets into trouble for going to watch a fighting match between two women (the winner of which serves as her inspiration during the many times she needs courage). Soon afterwards, her father pays off his debts by marrying her off to a man who needs an heir. Twice her age, this supposedly respectable customs agent is actually a smuggler. After enduring weeks of a joyless marriage, Stance runs away disguised in her husband’s clothes. Continuing on as a young man, she struggles through a duel at dawn, falls in love with a dancer, and fights as a foot soldier in Vienna. 

Piers has his own travails and wild adventures, too. Forced to leave the boarding school where he loved learning Latin, he tries to find his sister and rescue the family fortune–which is in dire straits again with Stance having fled her marriage. His search leads him to Paris and eventually Vienna, where he discovers his soldier-sister.

The characters, language (strong, for those who would shy away), and wealth of information are illuminating through and through, with every page lovingly crafted and a useful glossary at the end. Ironhead will enthrall readers who love historical fiction, strong heroines, gender-bending women miscategorized by society, tales of war, adventure stories, and much more. It’s a tour-de-force translation–and a fabulous read.

Ironhead, or, Once a Young Lady
Written by Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem
Translated from the Dutch by Kirsten Gehrman
ISBN: 978-164614-048-0
2022, Levine Querido

Awards: 2023 GLLI YA Translated Book Prize Shortlist; Junior Library Guild Selection

Reviews: Publishers Weekly Starred Review; Kirkus; Hornbook Starred Review

You can buy a copy here* or find it at a library.

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Award-winning opera singer Nanette McGuinness is the translator of over 100 books and graphic novels for children and adults from French, Italian, German and Spanish into English, including the much-loved Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels, as well as Tiki: A Very Ruff Year (nominated for the 2023 Eisner and Harvey Awards) and Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War (2023 GLLI YA Translated Book Prize Honor Book, 2023 Mosaic Prize winner, 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalist and 2023 Harvey Award nominee). Accolades have also gone to her translations of Magical History Tour: Vikings and of Magical History Tour: Gandhi (both 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalists), Luisa: Now and Then (2019 Stonewall Honor Book; 2020 GLLI YA Translated Honor Book; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2019) and California Dreamin’: Cass Elliot Before the Mamas & the Papas (2018 Harvey Award; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2018).