The Boat Runner

The Boat Runner

Devin Murphy

Devin Murphy is a Chicago-based writer and assistant professor of creative writing of Dutch heritage which might explain why his 2017 novel The Boat Runner follows a Dutch family’s fortunes during WWII. Perhaps misfortunes would be a better word. It is brilliantly written, a wonderful historical novel.

The action opens in the late 1930’s when Jacob and Edwin, 14- and 15-year-old Dutch brothers begin to understand the impending influence of the Germans in their lives. The family lives in a northeast coastal fishing village. The boys’ mother’s brother, Uncle Martin has a fishing boat and the boys are often on it helping out and learning the ropes. The boys’ father, owner of a light bulb factory is excited to be courting Volkswagen as a potential customer. In an attempt to influence the customer and win the business, he even sends the boys to a German youth camp.

 We follow this family through the pre-war years and when war breaks out and their country and town are occupied, it’s easy to see why loyalties are conflicted. Whether one is on the Allied side or the German side is like shaking the dice for survival. There doesn’t seem to be an official Dutch side. At the same time, the Dutch are hardy folk, survival is in their blood. The moral dilemmas facing the members of this family play a major part in the novel and would provide good fodder for discussion in a book club.

However, this is a war novel with events described therein that are very troubling and graphically described. I’m not sure I would even want to suggest it as a book club selection. On the other hand, it is such an epic novel and such an amazing story to read, that I do recommend it for intrepid readers.

In the author’s words:

This is very much a work of fiction, but it is built upon a historical and personal scaffolding of real people and true events. Now, I hope others will read the book and see this family’s impossible situation, and how the circumstances that create great upheavals have morphed through time, jumping borders, races and oceans. I hope this book does its job and entertains, evokes empathy for others, and leaves you more alert to those around you and the unique depths of their lives. But more than anything, I hope this story connects some unknowable reader to the receding shadows of our past, especially those of the darkest times, which is where we learn how essential it is to find the power of our own voice.