Postcards from No Man's Land

Postcards from No Man's Land is a young-adult novel by Aidan Chambers, published by Bodley Head in 1999. Two stories are set in Amsterdam during 1994 and 1944. One features 17-year-old visitor Jacob Todd during the 50-year commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem, in which his grandfather fought; the other features 19-year-old Geertrui late in the German occupation of the Netherlands.^[2][3] It was the fifth of six novels in the series Chambers calls "The Dance Sequence", which he inaugurated in 1978 with Breaktime.^[4]

Postcards from No Man's Land

Front cover of first edition
Author	Aidan Chambers
Language	English
Series	Dance Sequence
Genre	Young adult fiction, war novel
Publisher	The Bodley Head
Publication date	7 January 1999
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	336 pp (first edition)
ISBN	0-370-32376-9
OCLC	477161980
LC Class	PZ7.C3557 Po 2002[1]
Preceded by	The Toll Bridge
Followed by	This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn

Chambers won the annual Carnegie Medal, from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.^[3] In 2001 The Guardian named it one of ten books recommended for teenage boys, and called it a "seriously good and compulsively readable novel that spans 50 years and two interwoven stories of love, betrayal and self-discovery".^[5]

Postcards from No Man's Land was first published in the U.S. by Dutton in 2002.^[1] There it won the Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association recognising the year's best book for young adults.^[6][a]

WorldCat reports that Postcards is the work by Chambers most widely held in participating libraries, by a wide margin.^{[citation needed]}

One library catalogue record recommends Postcards for American "senior high school" students and the British librarians call it a "sophisticated book for older teenagers. Issues of euthanasia and sexual identity are raised. This is an emotionally and intellectually challenging book and one that lingers in the mind."^[3]

Notes

1. The Printz Award, inaugurated for 1999 publications, is the premier ALA award for young adult literature. Unlike the Newbery Medal for children's books, it is open to non-U.S. authors and to "old" books newly published in the U.S.