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Published Sep 2017
400 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
In the tradition of All The Light We Cannot See and The Nightingale, comes an incandescent debut novel about a young Dutch man who comes of age during the perilousness of World War II.
Beginning in the summer of 1939, fourteen-year-old Jacob Koopman and his older brother, Edwin, enjoy lives of prosperity and quiet contentment. Many of the residents in their small Dutch town have some connection to the Koopman lightbulb factory, and the locals hold the family in high esteem.
On days when they aren't playing with friends, Jacob and Edwin help their Uncle Martin on his fishing boat in the North Sea, where German ships have become a common sight. But conflict still seems unthinkable, even as the boys' father naively sends his sons to a Hitler Youth Camp in an effort to secure German business for the factory.
When war breaks out, Jacob's world is thrown into chaos. The Boat Runner follows Jacob over the course of four years, through the forests of France, the stormy beaches of England, and deep within the secret missions of the German Navy, where he is confronted with the moral dilemma that will change his life - and his life's mission - forever.
Epic in scope and featuring a thrilling narrative with precise, elegant language, The Boat Runner tells the little-known story of the young Dutch boys who were thrown into the Nazi campaign, as well as the brave boatmen who risked everything to give Jewish refugees safe passage to land abroad. Through one boy's harrowing tale of personal redemption, here is a novel about the power of people's stories and voices to shine light through our darkest days, until only love prevails.
Paperback Original.
"Starred Review. An ambitious coming of age story ... strong characters and compelling narrative convey the impact well beyond one family. An impressive debut." - Kirkus
"An effectively detailed, morally complex book that will appeal to all readers of historical fiction." - Library Journal
"Inspired by his own family connection to the Dutch experience of Nazi occupation during World War II, Murphy's debut novel is a stellar account of wartime sacrifice, loss, and suspense." - Publishers Weekly
"Loosely inspired by the author's own family history, Murphy's novel is successful not only for its visceral depiction of Europe at war but also as a study in character, limning Jacob's growth to a self-sufficient, empathetic adult." - Booklist
"Murphy is a rare writer whose prose rings with authority and beauty as it weaves the devastating story of children coming of age in the darkest hours of the twentieth century ... This is an unforgettable tale of human triumph." - Jonis Agee, author of The Bones of Paradise
"Murphy renders both exploding warships and the deepest quandaries of the human heart with equal grace, with equal force. In The Boat Runner, Devin Murphy has given us a much-needed tale of redemption in dark times. Its truths will be with me for a long while." - Nicholas Mainieri, author of The Infinite
"The Boat Runner is a satisfying page-turner, sure, but it is also an allegory for our time, a reminder of world war not so long ago, when fishermen, factory owners, children, and mothers became reluctant heroes, standing bravely against a sudden and twisted evil." - Nickolas Butler, internationally best-selling author of Shotgun Lovesongs and The Hearts of Men
"Poignant…acts as a cautionary tale for our own times...The young Dutch boy Jacob Koopman, together with his family, lives in the middle of a morality tale, in which doing the right thing is often obscured by the need to survive. Devin Murphy has given us a moving, powerful and important work." - Joseph Kertes, author of The Afterlife of Stars and Gratitude, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction
This information about The Boat Runner was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Devin Murphy grew up near Buffalo, NY in a family with Dutch roots. He holds an MFA from Colorado State University, a PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is an assistant professor of creative writing at Bradley University. He has worked various jobs in national parks around the country and once had a three-year stint at sea that led him to over fifty countries on all seven continents. His fiction has appeared in over sixty literary journals and anthologies, including the Missouri Review, Glimmer Train, and the Chicago Tribune. He lives with his wife and children in Chicago.
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