AustLit

'This historic novel is told by a geologist with a unique forensic talent for exploring the past, and an even more unique flair for placing the reader in the centre of the action. The story is woven around first-hand accounts of the tragedy which enveloped the peaceful country of Holland when it was over-run by the armies of Hitler. The Author married into a Dutch family and listened intently to their stories, enabling him to paint this vivid picture of the war-torn Holland from which they fled. This gripping narrative is dedicated to all who suffered there during WW II. When the Tulips Bled is now in its second edition which includes maps. It is the first of a series of novels scratching beneath the surface of our immigrant past, to thread together what it is to be Australian.' (Publication summary)

'This is the second historic novel by Lance Grimstone. As with his first book, When the Tulips Bled, the Author has brought World War II history to life through real, down-to-earth characters on both sides of the conflict in North Africa. Courage and compassion is expressed in so many ways - under fire, in retreat, in endurance, in stubbornness, in suffering, in fearing the worst, in struggling on regardless, in treating the enemy wounded as their own. Again, the Author's extensive research provides an authentic background to this engrossing narrative. And as with his first novel, he has uncovered more tantalising insights into our immigrant past and what it is to be Australian. Second revised edition includes maps.' (Publication summary)

'Both of Yoshiko Innoue’s brothers had already joined their ancestors in the service of their Emperor when America’s vengeful atomic fist slammed the rest of her family into oblivion. Cast adrift to wander alone through a life of abject poverty, she was easy prey for unscrupulous men like General Masaru Abachi, who ensured that the politics of peace would prove just as grubby as the politics of war. Yet in an Australian, she saw hope.

'Thirty months earlier, Major Ted Samuels had limped home to Brisbane from the war in North Africa, and straight into the nerve centre for the fight against a very different foe, and alongside a very different ally.

'At war’s end, he found himself thrust headlong into a dismembered nation of starving citizens, stripped of any honour, serfs of a foreign Shõgun, and suffocating in an atmosphere of bitter revenge, corruption and greed. At home, his brother, Jack, still bore the mental scars of the ferocity of jungle battles which had broken the bodies and spirit of the most seasoned warriors, torn at their souls and tortured their minds.

'Nothing could have prepared Ted for the confronting, censored aftermath of Truman’s ‘rain of ruin’. In a moment of weakness he found solace in the arms of a former enemy, which threatened to tear his family apart, creating wounds that took a decade to heal.

'Amidst the naivety of post-war Australia, the wives of all three Samuels brothers silently wrestled with their husbands’ demons, until they were drawn together at the baptism of Tom’s first born.

'It was a time of great political upheaval, when allegiance to the Mother Country had been brought into question in lieu of America. Then again, born out of the raw, turbulent wasteland of Hiroshima was Australia’s future alliance …' (Publisher's blurb)