The Departure of the Tall Ships

About the Book

This coming-of-age novel, based primarily on the author's personal experiences, is an account of life in Holland under Nazi occupation, a story told from the perspective of a young child coping with a shocking and traumatic new reality.

As she navigates the emotional roller coaster of the interminable military setbacks and advances of the Allies, the protagonist discovers not only that enemies may exist in one and the same family, but also that danger comes in many guises.

Evacuated to a historic town of cultural renown, she is exposed to history, music, art, and architecture, an environment far different from her previous world of ships and barges.


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About the Author

Rinske Pritchett was born and raised in Noord Holland, the Netherlands, and experienced the five-year Nazi occupation as a young child. Her hometown on the coast, connecting Amsterdam to the North Sea, was the northernmost stronghold of the “Atlantic Wall,” the line of defense constructed to prevent the Allied Forces from liberating Nazi-occupied Western Europe. Ms. Pritchett worked for the U.S. Army in Europe during the height of the Cold War. Her last assignment was as court interpreter and trial observer, assigned to the Staff Judge Advocate, 32nd Army Air Defense Command, a designated liaison office with the German judiciary in the Federal Republic of Germany. In the early Seventies she moved to the U.S. to pursue a higher education and settled outside Washington, D.C. She holds a B.A. in English literature and an M.A. and Ph.D. in German literature.