“Our Narrow Hiding Places”: Associate Professor of English Kris Jansma’s new historical fiction novel explores emotional and generational impact of World War II
In his latest novel, “Our Narrow Hiding Places,” SUNY New Paltz Associate Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing Kris Jansma examines how a historical event leaves behind emotional wounds on a family.
The novel follows Mieke, a grandmother originally from the Netherlands whose past as a survivor of the Hunger Winter — a World War II-related event that left Dutch citizens starved — comes back to haunt her when her grandson Will pays an unexpected visit amid issues in his marriage.
“He’s dealing with sort of the downstream impacts two generations later of the traumas that his grandmother has experienced,” said Jansma in an interview with National Public Radio. Click here for the full interview transcript.
The story was inspired in part by Jansma’s own connection to the Hunger Winter. His grandmother was a survivor herself, and she kept written accounts of her family and friends’ experiences during that time.
“I really wanted the novel to be able to see a bigger piece of history than the human characters could see,” he said in the NPR interview.
Outside of the NPR appearance, a segment on “Our Narrow Hiding Places” appeared on the CBS Saturday Morning television news program. Click here to watch the full video.
As a published writer, Jansma is also the author of novels “Why We Came to the City,” “Les Idéalistes,” and “The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards.” His short story fiction and nonfiction pieces have been in publications including the New York Times, Salon, Real Simple and the Alaska Quarterly Review. Read more here about Jansma’s work.