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1-Page Summary of No Man’s Land
Overall Summary
Aidan Chambers wrote Postcards from No Man’s Land. It won the Carnegie Medal and other awards, and it’s part of a series called Dance Sequence. He was an adult before he learned how to read fluently. Before writing this book, he worked as a monk and teacher.
Jacob is a seventeen-year-old boy who lives in England. He wants to visit his grandfather’s grave, but he doesn’t know where it is. His grandfather was a soldier during World War II and fought for Britain. Jacob wants to pay tribute to him and learn more about the war.
The story begins with Jacob in Amsterdam. He lost his bag and found a condom inside of it, which freaked him out. The narrative jumps back to 1944 where Geertrui narrates the next chapter. She’s excited because the British just landed in Amsterdam and will free them from German control. However, nothing goes smoothly and soon wounded British soldiers arrive at her home seeking refuge. This is how Geertrui finally meets Jacob’s grandfather, also called Jacob (he was too injured to fight). She let him stay behind when he recovered because she didn’t want him to die but she fell for him anyway (and couldn’t leave without saying goodbye).
Jacob goes back to the present. Before he makes it home, someone steals his money and muggers him. He is found by an elderly woman who takes him for coffee and talks about how people are selfish nowadays. During WWII, everyone helped each other through hard times because they were all in it together.
Jacob finally found where he was supposed to stay. He discovered that Geertrui was very ill and was going to die soon. She wanted Jacob to visit her before she died, so he felt like an intruder at the hospital but went anyway.
Jacob arrives at the nursing home where his mother is staying. He finds out that she has terminal stomach cancer and will die in 9 days because of it. Although Jacob doesn’t know much about euthanasia, he thinks that it’s a good thing when he first sees her; Geertrui seems to be suffering from a lot of pain. However, after meeting him for the first time, Geertrui reminds him about his grandfather who was very kind and caring towards everyone around him—he makes Jacob feel like everything will be okay.
The next day, Jacob attends a memorial service for fallen WWII servicemen. He’s reminded of how lucky he is to be alive and how terrible war was. He feels that his grandfather would have been proud of him if he were still alive today.
The story returns to 1944. Geertrui and her family are living in a farmhouse far away from their original home. Jacob is recovering there, and he’s spending more time with Geertrui. They fall in love, despite the obstacles they face as Jews hiding from the Nazis during World War II.
One day, a man named Jacob falls down and doesn’t get back up. His wife goes to him, but it’s too late because he has died suddenly. She mourns her lost love and the life she’ll never have with him. However, she can’t grieve for long because his wife is still alive in England and must be notified that he has passed away.
Two years later, Geertrui knows she’s pregnant. She doesn’t know how to tell her family because they’ll make her give the baby up for adoption. She marries another man named Dirk who loves her and wants to take care of the baby with her. However, Geertrui only agrees if Dirk promises to stay home and help raise the child. Geertrui keeps some of Jacob’s belongings so he can have them when he grows older as it is a part of his heritage that should be passed down through generations in their family. She doesn’t want Jacob to see her die soon after giving birth since she does not want him to remember that terrible moment in his life, but rather have happy memories about his mother when he sees those items from his childhood years later on. Jacob returns back home to England while Geertrui passes away shortly after giving birth without knowing what happened with Jacob or having any contact with him again once more before passing away peacefully at last.
