Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Summary and Reviews of Tamar by Mal Peet

Tamar by Mal Peet

Tamar

A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal

by Mal Peet
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Readers' Rating (5):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 23, 2007, 432 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Sep 2008, 432 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

When her grandfather dies, Tamar inherits a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. Out of the past, another Tamar emerges, a man involved in the terrifying world of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Holland half a century before. His story is one of passionate love, jealousy, and tragedy set against the daily fear and casual horror of the Second World War -- and unraveling it is about to transform Tamar’s life forever.

From acclaimed British sensation Mal Peet comes a masterful story of adventure, love, secrets, and betrayal in time of war, both past and present.

The air shook; you could feel it. And the noise was unbelievable. It is probable that humans had never heard anything like it, since it was perhaps the sound of the planet giving birth to its mountains, of raw young continents grating together. In the fields of southern England, animals panicked and continued to panic because the noise would not stop. At a stables in Buckinghamshire, every horse kicked out the door of its stall and bolted. Near Mildenhall, in Suffolk, a line of military vehicles came to a halt, and men tumbled out of the trucks to stare at the sky. A doctor, driving with his head out of the window to look upwards, ran into the back of the convoy and was killed instantly.

It was Sunday 17th September, the middle of the morning. People were in church. The pulsing downward beat of the noise overwhelmed their hymns. Choirs gave up. In Westminster Abbey the vast sound of the organ was drowned by it. Men, women, and children went into the streets and gazed up, ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Tamar is an wonderful meld of fact and fiction. Based in Second World War Holland, it is an amazing tale of romance, espionage and betrayal. Tamar keeps you second guessing what is happening until the end. Tamar makes you feel as if you are in the Second World War, experiencing the horrors of raids and rationing. Overall Tamar is an astounding book. It also made me really think about the arguments and counter arguments for each situation. I would recommend it to people above the age of 12. - Thomas (aged 14)...continued

Full Review Members Only (586 words)

(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

Media Reviews

The Guardian
As fine a piece of storytelling as you are likely to read this year.

Booklist
Starred Review. [T]his powerful story will grow richer with each reading.

Kirkus Reviews
Readers will be torn: They'll want to slow down and savor the gorgeously detailed prose, but speed up to find out what happens next. Simply superb.

School Library Journal
Starred Review. This is an extraordinary, gripping novel.

VOYA
Filled with compelling and deeply disturbing images of the horrors of war, the feelings and questions raised by this winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal will remain with the reader long after the last page has been turned.

KLIATT
This is a demanding, carefully written story, with dreadful details of betrayal and violence.

Publishers Weekly
[A] complex tale about how war casualties can keep accruing, generations after the battle ends.

Reader Reviews

Kristina Maher

A Gripping Story
Tamar is a moving story. It brings back in time into the second world war and makes you feel like you are living through it. The authors use of detail is impeccable and the way the author wrote the story allows you to personally relate to it. ...   Read More
Dalton

Super Awesome Book!
I love this book, it's a real keeper. I just got it at the library and now I'm gonna buy it just to keep around and maybe read again. I say it should be a book we have to read in school.
Kristi

Wow
This is an absolutely amazing book!
Palm Tree

Best Book I've Ever Read!
I loved this book! It is indeed the best book I've ever read. I will never forget it. Young Fiction is such a degrading category to put such a beautiful book in.

Write your own review!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



About the Author

Keeper, Mal Peet's debut novel for teens was published in October 2003; it won the Branford Boase Award and a Nestlé Children's Book Award. Tamar is his second book for teens. It won the Carnegie Medal* shortly after being published in the UK in 2005, and has recently been released in the USA. His third book, The Penalty, a follow up to Keeper, was published in the UK in 2006 and in the USA last month (Aug 2007).

After university, Peet tried to teach but "quit and went on ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Tamar, try these:

We have 10 read-alikes for Tamar, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Mal Peet
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...
  • Book Jacket: My Friends
    My Friends
    by Hisham Matar
    The title of Hisham Matar's My Friends takes on affectionate but mournful tones as its story unfolds...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Harvard is the storehouse of knowledge because the freshmen bring so much in and the graduates take so little out.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now