The Borrowed House
Author:
Hilda Van Stockum 
Complete Authored Works
Publication:
1975 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Genre:
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Pages:
203
Current state:
This book has been evaluated and information added. It has been read but content considerations may not be complete.
Book Guide
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Reunited with her parents after a long, wartime separation, twelve-year-old Janna moves gratefully into the Amsterdam house"borrowed" for her mother and father, an eminent German couple who have come from Berlin to perform for the Nazi occupation forces. Janna explores the house—find among other things a ring, a family portrait, a closetful of clothes for a girl her age—and begins to wonder about the Dutch family, the van Arkels, who had been so abruptly evicted when their home was requisitioned for Janna's parents.
As she learns more about the van Arkels and comes to know the servants they left behind, her Dutch tutor—and finally, the attractive, mysterious Sef—Janna finds her new knowledge of the Dutch disturblingly at odds with what the Hitler Youth organization has instilled in her.
Hilda Van Stockum writes as vividly, as revealingly, of the wartime Dutch scene from the German point of view as she did in her acclaimed 1962 novel about a Dutch family, The Winged Watchman.
From the dust jacket
Hilda Van Stockum
1908 - 2006Dutch American
A Dutch childhood, adventurous travel around the world with her naval officer father, art school in Dublin and Amsterdam, and finally, adulthood split... See more
The Borrowed House Revised
Reprinted in 2016 by Purple House Press
Available formats: Paperback
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This is an unrevised edition. It includes a beautiful self-portrait done by the author as well as a forward written by her son.
Content Guide
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Resource Guide
Podcast
The Borrowed House Book Club
Released in 2022 by Plumfield Moms Podcast
Available formats: Streaming Audio
Length: 1 hr. 6 min.
Listen to free audio
In this special episode, Diane and Sara sat down with the ladies from Biblioguides to have an in-depth conversation about Hilda van Stockum's The Borrowed House. This hour-long discussion is a great start to unpacking this book. Everyone is invited to listen in and join the discussion in the Plumfield Reads group inside the Biblioguides Community!
Podcast
Meet Hilda van Stockum's Son: John Tepper Marlin
Released in 2022 by Plumfield Moms Podcast
Available formats: Streaming Audio
Length: 42 min.
View on the Plumfield Moms Podcast site
Reviews
The Borrowed House
Like The Winged Watchman this is an upbeat look at the Dutch Resistance, and the heroine's beginnings as an avid Hitler...
The Borrowed House
Reviewed by Sara Masarik
In most of Hilda van Stockum’s books, the main character of the story is the ordinary happy family. In The Borrowed House, however, German Hitler Youth, Janna, is displaced from her family, and living on a German farm away from her parents. All Janna can dream about is being reunited with her parents and being the kind of family we expect to see in a van Stockum novel. When Janna is sent to live with her parents in German occupied Holland, her hopes of normal happy family life are quickly dashed, and she is left wondering where she really fits in the world. As she discerns the answer to that burning question, all of her prejudices, hopes, and understandings of the world are turned on their head, leaving Janna confused and feeling adrift. But, in classic van Stockum style, the darkness of Janna’s pain is overwhelmed by light.
Readers must note that this book is quite different from van Stockum’s other stories. It has a number of hard themes and some challenging content. I hate to spoil books in reviews, but this one requires a careful look, and to do that, I must give away some key details. In particular, I recommend that conservative parents of young and/or sensitive children read on. Also, parents who are concerned about romantic topics and/or the mention of witchcraft, also please read on. The main characters in this story are Nazi occupiers of Holland and this story deals with Nazi ethics. This is a beautiful and powerful story. It handles the disconcerting content with grace. But it is honest about the German occupation of Holland and the ways in which the German people lost their way when they recanted their traditions and their religious formation.
The Borrowed House
Reviewed by Sherry Early
The Borrowed House is one of those rare novels that adults can appreciate just as well as teens can. The book gives a lot insight into the way the German civilians looked at the war and at Herr Hitler as well as the privations and persecution and courage of the Dutch and Jewish people in Holland during World War II.
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