An unforgettable story tracking two tales- one during the Boer War in the early 1900s and the second following a boy who is forced to attend a wilderness camp in modern day South Africa. Both tales combine to demonstrate strong lessons about choice, imprisonment and expectation. A really beautiful story, which serves to share the tale of the British undertaking in South Africa during the Boer War. Too often, tales of this time are lost behind colonial history-making, so this was a book I learned vast amounts from.

I found this to be a disturbing yet fascinating book to read.
The underlying links to real historical events was what kept me engaged.
I never really warmed to the characters, either in the historical or modern sections of this dual time-frame novel.
I ask myself would I read another fictional book by this author?
At present the jury is out on that question.
I give my thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for a copy in exchange for this review.

This book was a joy to read as well as being one of the most clever books I have ever read. I think this book has taught me more than any other book, as well as making me bitterly ashamed of my lack of knowledge regarding certain historical events.
I loved the journey through time and the multiple points of view. This book was a boat on a slow meandering river, and I was enjoying the journey so much I couldn't get off.

This is an easy 5 stars. It is important and horrifying and I became so absurdly invested in all the characters, I felt although I was right there with them,

WOW! What an incredible book which is based on a true story.

The stories are set in South Africa over one hundred years from the Boer Wars. We meet Mrs Sarah van der Watt and her young son. The British have been burning Afrikaner farms and Sarah and her son find themselves in a concentration camp where they suffer appallingly. She keeps a diary and hopes her husband will find her there.

Willem is a different sort of lad and is sent to a harsh military camp by his mother and her overbearing husband. He's very close to his grandmother, Rayna and she's horrified when she learns what they've done.

The stories are intertwined so cleverly. A museum visit and history lesson for Willem and his classmates tell of the horrors of life in the concentration camp during the Boer Wars and Willem's time at the New Dawn Camp is mirrored with life then. In both stories they are told "you will be safe here".

I absolutely loved this story and am still thinking about it now.

A vivid and harrowing read due to the setting and narrative however I was gripped by the characters and intrigued to see how the two halves of the novel were linked even though they were set 100 years apart. I would recommend this to readers who want a challenging read which is intelligent and well-written.

An uncomfortable read, but full of empathy and detail which depicts an often forgotten part of history.

This is not my usual genre and I am so glad to be given the opportunity to read this book.
The story is set in South Africa and begins in the Boer war and spans the next hundred years. It deals with the predjuice, segregation and hatred. How the British set up containment camps, this really shocked me. This book is hard hitting and the author does not pull any punches. At times I found this book very distressing and emotional. Being based on a true story has opened my eyes.
This is a fascinating story of not only the Boer war but more importantly the on going division and struggle which this beautiful country is still undergoing. Personally I think that this book has a place in our schools. Beautifully written, a must read, highly recommended and an easy five stars.
I would like to thank the author, Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

All the feels!! This is a beautifully written book based on the true story. Author shows the roots of the current issues plaguing the South Africa which are based deep in the past and also in the current climate of toxic masculinity which permanates people's lives.
The book starts with a diary from the Boer War, and it talks about the concentration camps in which the characters are detained supposedly for their own safety. This theme is then echoed in the contemporary conversion camps that exist in the South Africa. Again, the safety is in numbers-anyone seen as different is rejected, making themselves vulnerable. The contemporary part is a story of those who don't fit in and repression they suffer. The author presents story of the wars as a beginning of the perpetual cycle of violence thal is present now in South African nationalism. The characters are complex and well written, and the language itself vivid in places carries the weight of the subject well, without being too gory or sentimental. All together - the hype around this book is well deserved.

This books delivers two very powerful stories both which are set in South Africa with over a century separating them. The cover is simple with the words that should reassure, set in between barbed wire, ‘You will be safe here’ but now that I have read this book it makes me so cold and ashamed.
I didn’t realise when I began this book that the story set in 2010 had been a true story so what had been a horrendous, intense and a captivating story now became a nightmare that filled me with so much sadness that I had to find out more. Unfortunately this book tells the story very truthfully and yet I had wished it had been more fiction than fact because of what happened.
The two stories are joined with a school trip to a museum dedicated to the homestead families during the second Boer war, who had become an embarrassment to the British government when these farmers were holding their own against a much larger trained army of soldiers. Terrible measures were put into force that would cripple the country and leave thousands of women and children forced into ill-equipped concentration camps where the death rate rocketed.
Raymond, who this book is dedicated to and his class are given role play cards with people’s names that had been in the camps with snippets of how life was for them and if they survived or died at the end of the war. Raymond had learning difficulties and often became the laughing-stock of his peers when under stress as he had little accidents.
Raymond loved his grandmother dearly and she loved him for who he was too. It had always just been him, his gran and mum but his mum had a new man and trouble started between them. Raymond is shipped out to a training camp for difficult boys and things just escalate very rapidly.
This is an outstanding book that once I finished would just keep popping back into my mind. The haunting camps, the characters that I got to know, who were also real and Raymond who broke my heart in so many ways. It seems sometimes that be it war or training camps it is a beacon to the psychopaths to crawl out of the woodwork to openly induce suffering in the most vile ways and hide it behind labels.
Two very powerful stories perfectly delivered, I won’t forget either of them.
I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly..
This book had such an impact on me I went on to buy a signed edition from Waterstones, one to keep!

Two interwoven stories examine South African attitudes towards outsiders- the Afrikaner farmers who were interned in camps by British colonisers, and the 'weak' boys sent to brutal camps designed to turn them into right-wing activists. The book does not excuse the heinous acts committed against Afrikaners in the past, but offers no sympathy towards their radicalised decedents. The book is unflinching in its descriptions of torture, enacted on women and children in the 1800s and young men in the 1990s-2000s. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the darker parts of British history and the paths that lead white men towards radicalisation. I would urge anyone who reads this book to research 'gay conversion' camps worldwide and support the charities, politicians and survivors who are fighting to ban them.

You Will Be Safe Here is a novel that blends a stories from 1901, the 1970's and modern day to give a representation of South African history. It is fiction, but inspired by true events. It's a hard hitting book and while the gap between the different characters are great, Barr has blended them perfectly. It isn't a light read and I found myself struggling a little because it does get quite bleak but it's definitely worth persisting.

This is not my usual type of book - although I do at times enjoy coming of age tales. Tragic and uplifting in equal measure, this story weaves a historical tale and a modern story. The setting of the story is not one I know well, which is one reason I tend not to be drawn to historical fiction. Overall I really enjoyed this book and the stories within. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC.

You Will Be Safe Here is a hard-hitting gut-punch of a novel telling the complex story of the Boer War, subsequent life in South Africa and the part the British government played in setting up concentration camps and perpetuating racism. The time it covers is about one-hundred years which could be tricky as it's a large span of time, but Barr manages to balance it beautifully. We would like to think that times have changed and this could no longer happen but is that really the case or are we kidding ourselves with history having been doomed to repeat itself. Who can be sure?

Our presence in this stunning country led to the adoption of what became known as a “scorched earth” policy which took those unwilling to sign a pledge of allegiance to the British Crown and evicted them from their homes placing them into internment camps. Heartbreakingly, this is a history that appears to be rarely spoken of in the West but given the implications, I guess it's entirely predictable why this important topic isn't covered in the British school curriculum. It's a poignant, heartfelt and emotional novel with a wonderful cast of characters whose wisdom and insight in the face of real adversity warms the heart and leaves you profoundly moved.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for an ARC.

'You will be Safe Here' opens with teenage Willem being taken, much against his will, by his mother and step-father to a New Dawn camp, designed to 'toughen him up a bit'. Willem's story does not conclude until the end of the book, by which time both we as readers and Willem, have experienced a lot.

In the meantime we are taken back to 1901 and the diary of Mrs Sarah van de Watt. Her husband had gone to fight the English, leaving Sarah and their son on the family farm. The farmers know that the English are approaching, and implementing their 'scorched earth' policy they are burning all farmsteads to the ground and destroying animals and crops to prevent them from providing support to the Boer fighters.

Sarah's diary entries are letters to her husband. They make heart-rending reading as she maintains her dignity, even as the English arrive at her home, make an inventory of her belongings, slaughter her animals then set fire to her home. She and her son are taken by cart to concentration camps - not extermination camps, but containment camps. The conditions are, however, dire with insufficient rations (including poisoned meat) and dreadful sanitation. The fate of the black farm workers is to be interned in black camps, with even harsher conditions.

Sarah hides her diary from the authorities and continues to write. Her entries tell of kindnesses, of the extremes a mother will go to in order to care for a child in such conditions and of each individual's fight for survival.

However we leave Sarah's story and jump to 1976 and meet Rayna and eventually her daughter Irma, and her son, Willem. The stories eventually intertwine, giving us an outcome for some of the characters, but for others, their fate is lost in history.

I think this book grew on me, rather than be an instant 'hit'. It is certainly one of those books where I went straight back to the beginning and read the prologue again, having completed the book. I realised how little I knew about the Boer Wars and was grateful for the historical note at the end. I will certainly read more about the history.

As the book jumps frequently from one time to another and from one person's story to another, I'm not sure that I really identified with many of the characters, other than Sarah. Although the stories do eventually come together, I found it rather disjointed as the Prologue, Part 1 and then Part 2 all start with different characters. However I would recommend the book. It is a fascinating account not only of the war, but the ongoing division and struggle which are still simmering throughout the 20th century and beyond.

Many thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book.

You Will Be Safe Here covers the Boer War and life in South Africa many years after. Ground not frequently tread in novels. The story of Sarah Van Der Watt, a young farmer's wife during the war, was the most heart-wrenching of the book. Heart-wrenching and yet beautiful, too. The way she described her day-to-day life on the farm was touching, sweet and rich with emotive power. Her existence turns on its head as she is uprooted, with her young son, and moved to Bloemfontein Concentration Camp. For her own safety, the British say. From there her world becomes dark and sad with caring for Fredy her only priority. It felt as if we lived with Sarah for quite a while then suddenly we are taken away to follow the story of Rayna, more than 70 years later. It was rather jarring but just go with it. It all becomes clear as the various stories interweave with each other.

I don't want to discuss the specifics of the story beyond what I've said as I would hate to spill some intricate piece of the puzzle. There is much, here, to fill your heart with empathy and create a strong bond between the characters and the reader. Such a lovely painful book is one that is both difficult to read and impossible to put down. South Africa is such a wondrous place. I knew it had a turbulent past but to see it through the eyes of these characters makes it real and tangible to those of us who live our lives far away both in time and distance.

This life-affirming book is perfect for book clubs and those looking to see into the events of our history. You Will Be Safe Here will open your eyes and touch your soul.

It seems a strange thing to say, but I'm not totally sure whether or not I enjoyed this book! I think that's because I enjoyed some of it, but found that, at times, it became slow and I almost gave up on it. From a historical point of view it was very interesting. We learnt a bit about the Boer wars at school but I was totally unaware of the internment camps and the horrific conditions in them. I found the story of Willem the most interesting part of the book. I think my problem with the book stems from the fact that it's set over three different time periods and though eventually the reader does get to link them all together, there are times in the book when you wonder where it's going.

Wow!! I weren't expecting to be gripped by this book but I was.
Thank you Damien Barr for bringing awareness of the atrocities of the Boer war and also the recent history of Concentration Camps that still exist in the world today.

So, it's been two days since I finished this book, and I still don't know how I am going to do it justice.

The story spans over 100 years in South Africa, from the second Boer War to post apartheid 2015. The main protagonists are an Afrikaans Boer wife and mother, who is taken to a concentration camp set up by the British (yes! that happened!) and a reserved, bookish teenage boy who is forced into a military style camp (dare we say conversion camp?!) by his misguided mother and brutish step father.

The way Barr connects these two seemingly separate narratives is touching and heart wrenching. I was fully immersed in the experience from the get go. There are multiple POV's within this story and occasionally it felt a bit jarring, but in such a capable author's hands, all is forgiven. I especially felt a connection to Willem (the teenage boy in 2010) and was so invested in his story that by the end I neglected my own children to finish the book.

This is a wonderful debut novel that left me heartbroken yet hopeful. It is shocking and compelling and I feel as though the characters will remain with me for some time. Bravo Mr. Barr!

This is a heartbreaking read. It is a part of history that I knew existed but so little is said about it in history class. It was interesting and gripping the whole way through. There has been so much heartbreak and division through the generations. These stories need to be told.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

It’s especially exciting as a reader when I start a novel and immediately feel engrossed by the story. This is a difficult thing to accomplish because it’s not just the content that needs to grip me but the style and tone of the narrative have to confidently guide me into the fictional world being presented. But I did feel wholly inside the story of “You Will Be Safe Here” by Damian Barr starting with the prologue where a teenage boy named Willem is forcibly taken by his parents to a sinister institution in 2010 and this feeling continued into the first chapter when a woman named Sarah describes her fear at the sight of distant smoke in 1901 as she knows this means military forces are nearing her farm.

So begin the stories of two different South African individuals at opposite ends of a century. This immersive novel explores the egregious fact of British-run concentration camps during The Second Boer War and camps in the present day designed to toughen up white young South African men who are deemed too effeminate or soft. These institutions are prisons that go by different names because they are purportedly for their inhabitants’ safety and improvement, but they’re really a slow form of torture. Through their pernicious practices we see warring ideologies about what makes the South African national identity and the unfortunate individuals who are the casualties of this political battle. It’s a heartrending tale, but it’s filled with so many beautifully realized moments that I didn’t want to look away and could relate to these characters’ stories (even though they are far different from my own life.)

A largely unknown truth this novel presents is the history of how the British operated concentration camps in South Africa from 1900-1902. Most people (including me) think of concentration camps as a Nazi invention during WWII, but prior to that they were implemented during the Second Boer War as a British military strategy to break up guerrilla campaigns. Civilian homes were destroyed and the inhabitants were herded into these poorly run camps to prevent the Boers resupplying from a home base. Thousands of civilians died in these overcrowded camps – mostly because of malnourishment and disease. This was shocking to discover and the story vividly brings us into the reality of what it was like to be interred in one of these camps. Though they weren’t designed as death camps that’s what they became for many. The novel movingly shows that there was cruelty but also moments of human kindness, friendship and a complex community spirit which arose in the face of adversity.

Being immersed in this history, it was difficult to see how Barr would create a bridge between this tale from the past and the one set in the near-present day. But the way he connects the two is gracefully done as we recognize characters between the two sections and see how the politics of the past can still be felt today. The thing which really drew me to Willem’s character is his bookish nature as he prefers spending time in the library at school rather than playing sports. Stories present an escape from his present where he’s ruthlessly bullied and ostracised. But what I most admire about the way the author handles Willem’s character and his storyline is that he’s not shown to have any particular sexuality though he’s labelled by his father and other boys as a “moffie”. Whether he’s still uncertain about his sexuality or keeps it private isn’t a concern for the reader and this better highlights how the issue is really the standards of masculinity all boys in this environment are being held to. Equally, a friendship Willem develops with another boy is delicately and complexly handled when it could have so easily become a cliché in the hands of a less talented writer.

This novel came with a huge amount of expectation. Not only was Damian Barr’s first book a compassionate and insightful memoir about growing up in the time of Thatcher. But he also regularly hosts the most impressive and glitziest literary salon in London where the guests he interviews include some of the best and most famous writers of today. Interacting with such literary greats puts a lot of pressure on this host to create a first novel that's really something special, but the result is so original, impactful and mesmerising to read that it's a real triumph. I've been lucky enough to get to know Damian a bit over the years and I always feel a lot of anxiety reading something by a writer I know because if I don't enjoy it I need to awkwardly explain to them I don't think it's their best (or pretend I've not found time to read it.) So I was thrilled to discover what a genuine joy it was reading this story and what an impressive, finely researched, artfully constructed novel it is! It's really made me rethink how I look at history – the many ways victorious nations conveniently forget their failings and crimes when teaching world history. I also felt such a connection to the characters that they're going to linger in my imagination for a long time.