When Paula Kogel was young, she fell passionately in love with a Dutch soldier and the couple moved to the Dutch East Indies to raise a family. Upon the outbreak of fighting in World War Two, the family moved to the suburb of Tjideng in Batavia. Their small two-bedroom house in the Ampasiet district is the setting for the book.When Japanese Armed Forces took control of the Dutch East Indies in March 1942, soldiers were immediately transported to POW slave labour camps such as the Burma Railway and the coal mines in Japan, while the civilian men, and later boys as young as 10, were removed from their families. The women and small children left behind were interned in camps, often fenced-off town districts, where they had to fend for themselves. In Tjideng, Paula and her two young sons were imprisoned in their own home, ultimately sharing their house at Ampasiet with 21 other prisoners, each allotted just 50cm of ‘living space’. It was unbearably cramped, dehumanizing and tense and conditions deteriorated rapidly. Survival meant working together for the sake of the children. What shines through is the courage and strength Paula and her fellow internees showed in the face of such unbelievable cruelty.The book also tells the story of Paula’s husband Jan, enduring transportation by the so called ‘hell ships’ to prison destinations, working on the railway and in the mines until the Atom bomb in August 1945 ended the war and saved his life.Paula was born in Germany in 1911. She had always filled her life with music, and when she returned to The Netherlands after the war she became a successful music teacher. She also toured the country with her puppet theatre, and brought much joy to her students and audiences alike. Always claiming that nobody would be able to kill her spirit, her eternal optimism was a quality that helped her survive the horrors of the Tjideng prison camp.The House at Ampasiet was originally published in Dutch in 2000 by Paula’s daughter Lore Ridings, fulfilling her mother’s dearest wish to have her story published.

After centuries of virtual isolation, during which time international sea travel was forbidden outside of Japan’s immediate fishing shores, Japanese shogunal authorities in 1862 made the unprecedented decision to launch an official delegation to China by sea. Concerned by the fast-changing global environment, they had witnessed the ever-increasing number of incursions into Asia by European powers—not the least of which was Commodore Perry’s arrival in Japan in 1853–54 and the forced opening of a handful of Japanese ports at the end of the decade. The Japanese reasoned that it was only a matter of time before they too encountered the same unfortunate fate as China; their hope was to learn from the Chinese experience and to keep foreign powers at bay. They dispatched the Senzaimaru to Shanghai with the purpose of investigating contemporary conditions of trade and diplomacy in the international city. Japanese from varied domains, as well as shogunal officials, Nagasaki merchants, and an assortment of deck hands, made the voyage along with a British crew, spending a total of ten weeks observing and interacting with the Chinese and with a handful of Westerners. Roughly a dozen Japanese narratives of the voyage were produced at the time, recounting personal impressions and experiences in Shanghai. The Japanese emissaries had the distinct advantage of being able to communicate with their Chinese hosts by means of the "brush conversation" (written exchanges in literary Chinese). For their part, the Chinese authorities also created a paper trail of reports and memorials concerning the Japanese visitors, which worked its way up and down the bureaucratic chain of command. This was the first official meeting of Chinese and Japanese in several centuries. Although the Chinese authorities agreed to few of the Japanese requests for trade relations and a consulate, nine years later China and Japan would sign the first bilateral treaty of amity in their history, a completely equal treaty. East Asia—and the diplomatic and trade relations between the region’s two major players in the modern era—would never be the same.

For readers of Kate Morton and Jamie Ford comes a captivating novel of two very different women, struggling to come to terms with the ghosts from their past—by the internationally bestselling author of A Vintage Affair and The Very Picture of You Sometimes the only way forward is through the past. Jenni Clark is a ghostwriter. She loves to immerse herself in other people’s stories—a respite from her own life, and from a relationship that appears to be nearing its end. Jenni’s latest assignment takes her to a coastal hamlet in England, where she’s agreed to pen the memoir of an elderly farm owner named Klara. Jenni assumes the project will be easy: a quiet, ordinary tale of a life well lived. But Klara’s story is far from quiet. She recounts the tale of a family torn apart by World War II, and of disgraceful acts committed against a community in the Japanese prison camps on the Pacific island paradise of Java. As harrowing details emerge and stunning truths come to light, Jenni is compelled to confront a secret she’s spent a lifetime burying. Weaving together the lives of two very different women, Isabel Wolff has created a captivating novel of love, loss, and hope that reaches across generations. Praise for Shadows Over Paradise “An excellent choice for fans of Sarah Jio and Kate Morton.”—Booklist “Shifting focus from the present to the past with ease, this novel brings to the page the reality of the horrors of the Japanese-run internment camps in vivid and gory detail. Wolff’s latest will please fans of women’s stories that include a realistic depiction of life during wartime and the ability to overcome adversity.”—Library Journal “Beautifully written . . . an outstanding book club selection . . . If you liked Jamie Ford’s novels [then] you’ll like Shadows Over Paradise.”—Huntington News

Two Dutch families leave South Africa for Java, motivated by patriotism. Caught in the events of WWII, they are interned, emerging four years later as refugees, to make a new life in a changed world.

Loyalty to family. Trusting instincts. The will to survive. These virtues are deeply embedded in a mature Dutch teenager, Annika Wolter. Her attributes prove useful as she navigates typical coming-of-age insecurities and a blossoming romance with a handsome lieutenant in 1939 Batavia, Java. Nothing prepares her for the distress of Hitler’s attacks on European countries followed by Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor, toppling her idyllic life in the Dutch East Indies colonial society and separating her from the man she loves. Uplifting events from a true story showcase how determination, nursing basics, and language skills keep a young woman and her mother alive in the worst Japanese internment camp in the Pacific. If you admire clever women and unfailing love in a tropical wartime setting, you will be captivated by Sapphire Promise. Here's what readers are saying: "This coming-of-age story occurs during a time of great turbulence. The author takes such care in reminding the reader about what it means to be human, love, care, survive, and heal." Jamie Stern-Member at Large, Director of Research, The Indo Project "I’m excited to share the compelling story of The Sapphire Promise with my book group! The study questions at the end will ensure a lively, thoughtful discussion of this fascinating memoir." Pat H. Member of 3 Book clubs “Don’t Despair.” Until 1950 this was the motto of the coat of arms of Batavia, once called the Queen of the East! The life of Annika Wolter, and the life of everyone else in Dutch East-India changed dramatically after the invasion of the Japanese in 1942. Sally Brandle carries us into Batavia’s pre-war daily life and into its architectural beauty. However, she also carries us, with Annika, into the darkness of Batavia’s Japanese camp Tjideng. This loss of her idyllic life caused despair but also hope." Dirk Teeuwen MSc, Nieuwpoort, The Netherlands

The career of John Davis was inextricably and paradoxically intertwined with that of Chin Peng, the leader of the Malayan Communist Party and the man who was to become Britain’s chief enemy in the long Communist struggle for the soul of Malaya. When the Japanese invaded Malaya during WWII, John Davis escaped to Ceylon, sailing 1,700 miles in a Malay fishing boat, before planning the infiltration of Chinese intelligence agents and British officers back into the Malayan peninsula. With the support of Chin Peng and the cooperation of the Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army, Davis led SOE Force 136 into Japanese-occupied Malaya where he operated from camps deep in the jungle with Freddy Spencer Chapman and fellow covert agents. Yet Davis was more than a wartime hero. Following the war, he was heavily involved in Malayan Emergency affairs: squatter control, the establishment of New Villages and, vitally, of tracking down and confronting his old adversary Chin Peng and the communist terrorists. Historian and biographer Margaret Shennan, born and raised in Malaya and an expert on the British in pre-independence Malaysia, tells the extraordinary, untold story of John Davis, CBE, DSO, an iconic figure in Malaya’s colonial history. Illustrated with Davis’ personal photographs and featuring correspondence between Davis and Chin Peng, this is a story which truly deserves to be told.

A first-hand account of life as a Japanese prisoner during the Second World War which reveals how Mitchell was taken to Japan as part of an overseas force and set to work levelling agricultural land for an airfield, before being moved to work at the furnaces of a foundry, and then to a coal mine.