Title:
Buried
Appearances
Author:
D.E.
Haggerty
Release
date: November
4th,
2013
Genre:
Contemporary
Book
Description:
Skylar
Dewitt has been ostracized her entire life due to her grandfather’s
well-known sympathies with the Nazis. But now her grandfather’s
body has been recovered in the Netherlands in an area famous for
being a Nazi killing ground. Why would her grandfather be buried in a
place legendary for assassinations of resistance members? Skylar jets
off to Holland in search of answers about her grandfather’s demise.
Along the way she finds long-lost family and old friends but will she
solve the mystery of what happened to her grandfather? And maybe she
discovers something more valuable than resolving any mystery could
be: herself
Excerpt from
Buried Appearances
By D.E. Haggerty
After I hang up the
phone, I sit and stare at my computer for a while. I still have no
clue how to carry on. I am completely and utterly stuck. I am at a
loose end and don’t know what to do. I do have one promise,
however, that I made to Griet before I left Michigan that I have to
fulfill. I head off to the Wertheim park to fulfill that promise.
I stand at the
Auschwitz memorial in the park and try to hold back my tears. It is
so breathtakingly sad here. The smashed mirrors dominating this tiny
park are heartbreaking. The memorial epitomizes the dichotomy that is
the war and Holland. On the one hand, I am standing in front of a
heart wrenching monument to the Dutch victims of the Holocaust that
died in Auschwitz but in the background I hear the tram rumble by,
dogs barking as they run around the grass of the park and children
playing soccer on the other side of the fence.
The Dutch continue
with their lives as I slowly kneel and place white tulips on the
memorial. I have one tulip for each member of Griet’s family that
perished in the camps. As I stand, I can’t help but let the tears
fall. I don’t know how Griet has survived such sadness, such
heartbreak. “Gaat het me u,” I hear behind me.
I run the back of my
arm across my eyes before turning. I don’t want anyone to see my
tears. Tears I normally never let fall. “Sorry,” I start. “Ik
spreek geen Nederlands.” I don’t speak Dutch being one of the few
phrases I do speak in Dutch.
He smiles gently at
me. “I asked if you are okay.”
I try to smile at
him but I’m sure my smile wobbles. “It’s just so sad.” I
lamely comment.
The stranger nods
and looks at my tulips. “Your family?” He asks.
I shake my head.
“No, it’s for Griet.”
“Griet?”
“She’s my friend
or rather Oma’s friend back home.” I explain rather dumbly.
He nods. “For not
speaking Dutch, your pronunciation is good.”
“My dad was Dutch.
Oma emigrated with dad to America after the war.” Why am I telling
the stranger these things? I shrug. “I guess I’m half-Dutch but I
grew up in America. Oma didn’t teach me Dutch. I try to forget I
was Dutch or at least I used to.”
“Why would you
want to forget who you are? Where you came from?” He looks
genuinely interested.
I shrug and try to
act nonchalant. “My family was bad during the war. I got bullied
about it.”
“Bad? What does
that mean?”
“My grandfather
was a NSBer,” I start. “But now I’m here because it looks like
he might have been killed by the Nazis. I’m trying to figure out
what happened but I’m getting nowhere.”
He tilts his head
and stares intensely at me. “Do you want to go get a coffee and
tell me all about it?” His request shocks me. Although the Dutch
are nice and outwardly friendly, I haven’t experienced any instant
friendships like in America.
I look intently at
the man. He is a stranger but it’s broad daylight and for some
reason I don’t feel threatened by him. He looks to be my age, maybe
older. He doesn’t look like a psycho killer but I guess that psycho
killers never look like psycho killers either. This trip is all about
taking chances and leaving my comfort zone so I shrug and hold out my
hand. “I’m Skylar.”
He takes my hand and
shakes it firmly but gently. “Nicolaas.”
About
the Author:
I
was born and raised in Wisconsin but think I’m a European (a cloggy
to be exact). After spending my senior year of high school in
Germany, I developed a bad case of wanderlust that is yet to be
cured. After high school I returned to the U.S. to go to college
ending up with a Bachelor’s degree in History at the tender age of
20 while still managing to spend time bouncing back and forth to
Europe during my vacations (oh the benefits of a long-distance
relationship). Unable to find a job after college and still suffering
from wanderlust, I joined the U.S. Army as a Military Policewoman for
5 years (the Peace Corps was too much paperwork). While stationed in
Heidelberg, Germany, I met my future husband, a flying Dutchman
(literally). After being given my freedom from the Army, I went off
to law school. I finished law school and moved to the Netherlands
with my husband and became a commercial lawyer for more than a
decade. During a six month break from the lawyering world, I wrote
Unforeseen Consequences. Although I finished the book, I went back to
the law until I could no longer take it and upped stakes and moved to
Germany to start a B&B. Three years after starting the B&B, I
got the itch to try something else and decided to pull the manuscript
for Unforeseen Consequences out of the attic and get it published as
an e-book. Between tennis, running, traveling, singing off tune,
reading, playing part-time lawyer and running the B&B, I’m
working on my 3rd book.
Official
Website: http://www.dehaggerty.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/denaehaggerty
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