Famine, War, And Love

"Famine, War, and Love" is the story of two families, one Dutch/Canadian and one Irish/American, whose fates are linked together, over three generations, by two of the desperate famines of our times: the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-5, when the Nazis starved 20,000 civilians to death, and the Ethiopian famines of the early 1980's, when more than 500,000 people perished. The story is told through the soliloquies of the main characters, most of whom never meet, but whose connections give a glimpse of individual destiny.

Christina Vermeer is a child of the Occupation of the Netherlands by the Nazis. When all food supplies are deliberately cut off to Northern Holland, in the Hunger Winter of 1944-5, and her father disappears, fleeing for his life, Christina and her mother are forced to survive on their own. Christina, 12 years old, becomes one of the courageous women 'Going to the Farms' to scavenge and steal food. Jacob Riley, son of a penniless foundling Irish immigrant to America, becomes an American Army Air Force B-17 bomber pilot over Europe during WW2. He takes part in the food airlift of April/May, 1945, that saves the Dutch from further starvation. Jacob's plane crashes; badly injured, and the sole survivor of his crew, he is rescued, and survives to return to Kansas and his parents. Christina and her mother immigrate to Canada in 1950. Christina becomes an "All-Canadian girl", marries, and has a daughter, Elsa, who grows up to be a pediatrician. Seeking adventure and fulfillment, she volunteers for a year's service at a rural hospital in Ethiopia, during the peak of the famines. Jacob Riley's son, Jake ('never call me Jacob') Riley, born in Topeka, Kansas, is a foot-loose and fancy-free spirit who becomes a long-distance truck driver, always seeking 'what is over the next hill.' Deciding to work his way around the world, he finds himself, in 1982, as a long-distance driver hauling relief and medical supplies for Canada Child Survival, in northern Ethiopia. And thereby hangs the tale...

Stephen C. Joseph began his life in medicine and public health as a Peace Corps Physician in Nepal in the early 1960's. His work has since taken him to more than 40 countries. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Academy of Medicine. He has also served as Commissioner of Health of New York City, Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, and US Assistant Secretary of Defense/Health Affairs. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Bourdeilles, France.