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Lynne Reid Banks
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Casualties: Relationships are shattered after the trauma of WWII Kindle Edition

by Lynne Reid Banks (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.8 out of 5 stars 104 ratings
An unforgettable family saga. Perfect for fans of The Book Thief, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Anthony Doerr and Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale.

How do you move forward when you are haunted by the horrors of the past?


London, 1975



With her marriage at breaking point and worrying she is failing in her relationships with her teenage sons, Sue McClusky is at a crossroads.

So when Mariolain, an old friend of Sue’s, suggests the whole family come to stay with her in The Netherlands, Sue accepts immediately.

Sue and Cal soon see their own troubles reflected in the marriage of Mariolain and her husband Niels.

But as confidences grow between the couples, it becomes clear that the Dutch couple’s problems are more deep-seated than Sue could have ever imagined.

Thirty-five years earlier, both Mariolain and Niels suffered unimaginably during the Second World War.

As Sue learns the harrowing truth, she begins to feel that maybe the shocks of the past can help heal the rifts of the present…

CASUALTIES is a heart-breaking saga spanning from Nazi-occupied Holland and the prisoner-of-war camps in Indonesia to the struggles of family relationships in 1970s Europe.

‘How lucky we are to have Lynne Reid Banks! Casualties is her eighth novel and easily her best’ – Daily Telegraph

‘tremendously moving... Shattering details of wartime hardships and childhood abuse are insinuated into matter-of-fact particulars about daily domestic routines’ - Publishers Weekly

‘Casualties is a human-centred story, layered and compelling’ - The Good The Bad and The Bookish
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  1. Print length
    295 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    June 26, 2019
  4. File size
    1.4 MB
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
    Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07TNS3N2Y
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sapere Books (June 26, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 26, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1.4 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 295 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1913028917
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 out of 5 stars 104 ratings

About the author

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Lynne Reid Banks

Lynne Reid Banks

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Lynne Reid Banks is a best-selling author for children and adults. Her classic children's novel 'The Indian in the Cupboard' has sold nearly six million copies worldwide. She was born in London in 1929 and worked as an actress, writer and TV news reporter. Lynne has written thirty books: her first, 'The L-Shaped Room', was published in 1960. She now lives in Dorset, where she continues to write. Lynne says that writing for children comes much more easily than writing for adults. Tony Ross was born in London in 1938. He has worked as an art director at an advertising agency, a graphic designer, a cartoonist, a teacher, a film maker and as a Senior Lecturer in Art at Manchester Polytechnic.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
104 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Kindle Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing read.
    Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Fiction that reads like truth!! A well written book that tells a credible tale of deep secrets and childhood trauma. Much of the story is set against the Dutch part in WW11 which many of us are ignorant about, due to so much writing being about the French.
    Her key characters are well developed; indeed they become our familiar friends and lapses from past to present are easily absorbed.
    I look forward to reading more of Lynne Reid Banks!
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  • Cloggie Downunder
    5.0 out of 5 stars A truly moving and thought-provoking read.
    Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2019
    “…the worst thing about wars is not the casualties that happen on the battlefield, but the ripples going out from them, on and on toward some shore so impossibly remote in terms of time that effectively it doesn’t exist.”

    Casualties is a novel by British author, Lynne Reid Banks. In 1975, author Sue McClusky’s marriage is full of dissatisfaction and tension that she and Cal try to conceal from their young sons. When a Dutch friend from her distant past invites Sue’s family to spend the Easter vacation with her own, it seems like a gift: they can surely postpone their quarrels in company. And Mariolain seems to need Sue to come…

    When they arrive, the welcome from Mariolain and her children is warm and genuine, but Sue can tell something is not quite right. Their house in Hilversum is a real wonder, filled with art and craft and clearly the product of “two talented, artistic, unconventional people who loved it and each other and saw eye to eye in all matters of taste”. But later, when they are alone, Mariolain reminds Sue of the last time they met, almost twenty years earlier, and eventually, of the promise she made to tell Sue of her family’s experience of the war.

    This, she does, in intimate detail, and Sue is shocked by what her friend had to endure, and amazed at her resilience. Niels, Mariolain’s charming husband, seems to have captivated Cal, but Sue is less impressed with his behaviour, as reported by her friend. At least, until Cal relates the events of Niels’s early childhood in Java during the Japanese occupation. By this time, Sue is seeing the triviality of the problems plaguing her own marriage, in comparison to the challenges that the Dutch couple’s marriage has survived.

    This reissue by Sapere Books sports a beautiful, evocative cover. Even though it was originally published in 1986, it is a testament to Reid Banks’s literary skill that it does not feel dated. She firmly anchors Sue’s story in that era, while the flashbacks to wartime Holland and Java have an authentic feel. And while the subject matter is often sober, there are plenty of humorous moments as well.

    Readers who feel they know all about the war in Holland: rationing, the activities of the Dutch Resistance, the hiding of Jewish families and young men avoiding German labour camps, may well be in for a surprise, in particular with regards the insidious recruitment and post-war treatment of collaborators. The mindset of the ordinary Dutch, the patriots and the German sympathisers is well conveyed.

    Reid Banks gives her characters depth and insight: they often articulate words of wisdom. Of their own war experience, Sue says “It’s only luck we weren’t invaded. All the same things would have happened to us, all the same monsters would have crawled out of holes… Evil is so often a matter of occasion.”

    Of the place where her worst horror happened, Mariolain says “It’s a beautiful place. We often go. One should not blame places for the things that happen in them. One has to go to them and be happy in them, to sort of clean them of the awful thing.” A truly moving and thought-provoking read.
    This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Sapere Books.
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  • Michelle
    4.0 out of 5 stars How World War II affects relationships later in life
    Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2019
    This war story spans from World War II era to the 1970s as the characters evolve and their past affects their future. Sue McClusky's marriage is failing, and she's struggling to have a relationship with her teenage sons. Then her friend Mariolain invites her whole family to stay with her in the Netherlands, and Sue jumps at the chance. Mariolain and her husband Niels are also at a crossroads, and the two couples have more in common than they thought. Historical fiction fans are sure to love this story!
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  • VEdwards
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent WWII Story
    Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2019
    Because I enjoy reading historical fiction, I have read quite a few about World War II. Usually the story takes place in England, France, or the United States. I have never thought about what the war was like for someone living in Holland or for anyone in a land occupied by the Nazis that didn't happen to be Jewish. I loved the new perspective of Mariolain's story and her experiences during the war. Her story was both moving and horrifying at the same time.
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  • Danielle P.
    2.0 out of 5 stars harrowing stories told at one remove
    Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2019
    A number of things about this novel puzzle me, the chief one being what motivated the author to interpose an Anglo-American couple between the Dutch couple and us — in effect telling their stories at one remove. I understand that Sue serves to draw out Mariolain's confidences, but was it necessary to insert unsufferable Cal and their two barely civilised sons into the narrative? I wonder whether the story of Niels' parents would have been more affecting if he'd revealed it directly to Sue, instead of divulging it "offstage" to Cal, who then fills Sue in on it.

    Over the course of much of the novel, we keep switching between the horrors of WWII and Sue whining about her family, which to my mind only cheapens the suffering being described and its repercussions. Although there are some heart-wrenching moments, I found myself increasingly irritated with the adult characters' puerile behaviour and wondering where all this was leading — which, as it turns out, is an ending that offers no resolution at all.

    [I received an electronic copy of this novel from the publisher, Sapere Books, in exchange for my honest opinion.]
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Top reviews from other countries

  • martin h.
    5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating story expertly handled
    Reviewed in Canada on June 3, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I haven't read any book by Lynne Reid Banks since 'The L-Shaped Room' way back in the 60's when it was a must read for all young people with a penchant for social dramas that told of the shameful state of the world. This book was as engrossing to me now as that was all those years ago. Highly recommended.
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  • Jess
    5.0 out of 5 stars A good story about the effect of childhood troubles
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I really loved this book. I have not read any of Lynne Reid Banks books before, although I remember seeing the film version of "The L Shaped Room" when I was a teenager and loving it. In fact, I did not realise she had written it until I looked for more of her books today. Anyway, this is a realistic story about the effect of childhood trauma in later life, how it effects relationships in later life and most of all, the damage done by adults to children they profess to love, either by design or accident. I really don't think that as a starting point, you could get better than illustrating the point than by setting it in an occupied country during WW2, where adults have more to deal with than the normal problems of being a parent and the needs of children sometimes come a poor second.

    The story emerges gradually and is told to an Anglo-American family, who have problems of their own, by a Dutch family they are visiting for a holiday. It emerges gradually and illustrates how initial judgements can be disastrously mistaken until the true picture is seen. The story is told in a piecemeal manner, which fits perfectly with real life, in a chatty, warm style but the events regarding the children during wartime are harrowing and the long term effects are resonating 20 years later. I lived in Belgium in the late 60s and had many Dutch and Belgian friends, none of whom liked to talk about the war but were still scathing about the hated "Boche" so I can really relate to the book.

    This is a book which is well worth reading. It is a story that is told with sympathy and humour and makes us realise just how small and meaningless are the complaints we sometimes have about things in our lives that really don't matter in the greater scheme of things, especially when faced with someone who really has something to complain about. It does not do this is a moralising way. It just makes you think. Highly recommended.
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  • Mrs. Mary Mcginlay
    4.0 out of 5 stars great
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 20, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    A great page turner
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  • Michele
    5.0 out of 5 stars An enlightening story
    Reviewed in Canada on May 15, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    This novel reminds us to never judge a book by it's cover. People are made up of so many elements. Some conscious, but many more from memories and experiences forgotten. Wonderful examination of the human spirit.
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  • Tracesprite
    5.0 out of 5 stars Intensities
    Reviewed in Australia on October 20, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Intensities might be a better name than casualties for this superbly told novel. I'm so glad that I suddenly remembered that I like the novels of Lynne Reid Banks. I've been in the firm embrace of this novel yesterday and today and it has been a great place to be.
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