Postcards from No Man's Land
by Aidan Chambers
Dutton/Penguin Putnam

Chambers’ novel is a passionate narrative about 17-year-old Jacob, who comes to Amsterdam to find the grave of his grandfather who died there during World War II. He meets Geertrui, the Dutch woman who cared for his wounded grandfather. Her teenage World War II story is interwoven with Jacob’s surprising discoveries about love, sex, family secrets and his own identity.

“The alternating narratives of Jacob and Geertrui make a story that is intense, sophisticated and surprising,” said Suzanne Manczuk, acting chair of the Printz Award Selection Committee. “Jacob discovers that ‘nothing in Amsterdam is what it appears to be.’” Chambers lives in England, and his previous young adult works have been acclaimed by critics on both sides of the Atlantic. “Postcards from No Man’s Land” was awarded the British Carnegie Medal, and Chambers received the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2002 for the body of his work.