Dimensions
155 x 235 x 31mm
Lulu lives on Java, in Indonesia, with her father, a doctor; her narcissistic and highly-strung mother; and her aunt Margot, a nurse. By day, she plays quietly and takes lessons with her mother. But by night, when the adults are asleep, she inhabits a magical world in which reality and fantasy merge, and people and animals are transformed by the moonlight into gods and devils.
When Lulu's Uncle Felix turns up unexpectedly, she witnesses confusing scenes between the adults, first during the day and then in the enchanted night. When she describes what she has seen, she unwittingly sets in train a series of events which lead to her family leaving their idyllic tropical home, and setting sail for Holland, where her father's family live. But it is 1939, and Lulu's family is Jewish. Lulu's mother leaves for England, her aunt returns to Java, and Lulu and her father find themselves forced into hiding by the German invasion. Lulu must leave childhood behind, and enter a hostile world, sustained only by her fierce, increasingly-tested courage.