Kathryn J. Atwood is the author of the new young adult novel The Belgian Girls. Her other books include Women Heroes of World War I.
Q: What inspired you to write The Belgian Girls, and what initially intrigued you about the life of the Belgian spy Gabrielle Petit (1893-1916)?
A: Gabrielle’s story is featured in my third book, Women Heroes of World War I, in a chapter titled “Feisty Patriot.”
Because of her broken childhood and a stubborn refusal to endure injustice, Gabrielle was on her own by the age of 15, painfully aware that she lacked the means necessary to make a living commensurate with her intelligence and abilities. She fought relentlessly against those who tried to diminish her, which eventually included the First World War Germans who overran Brussels.
I was profoundly moved by the way in which this deeply troubled young woman found her stride in resistance work and became a national inspiration to two generations of Belgians. (And the WWII timeline of The Belgian Girls follows the story of Julienne, a fictional character who embodies this second-generation response to the Gabrielle Petit story.)
I hadn’t read much historical fiction since my Leon Uris fangirl days, but when Kate Quinn sent me a signed copy of The Alice Network (it’s a long story!) and I saw how brilliantly she brought to life Louise de Bettignies, the First World War’s “Queen of Spies,” I wondered if I might do something similar with Gabrielle’s story. I hope I’ve done half as well!
Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: I was able to feature Gabrielle in Women Heroes of World War I only because of my husband’s ability with the French language, but the following year, Dr. Sophie de Schaepdrijver published the first (and so far, the only) English-language biography on her: Gabrielle Petit: The Death and Life of a First World War Spy.
Because that book is so very well researched and detailed, I had far more information about Gabrielle at my disposal than I did while writing Women Heroes of World War I.
Q: What did you see as the right balance between fiction and nonfiction as you wrote the novel?
A: Each statement, every quote in nonfiction must be backed up with references, and as an author of six nonfiction books, I felt compelled to base The Belgian Girls firmly within its historical framework.
But what I found great fun this time around was the freedom to fill in the blanks with what the characters in the novel might have thought, said, or done.
To keep Gabrielle’s story in sync with actual history, I utilized my previous First World War work as well as the de Schaepdrijver biography. The Second World War timeline was a distillation of my research on young European resisters whose stories are included in my first book, Women Heroes of World War II.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: An appreciation for the difficulties faced and the courage exhibited by young women who fought against the German occupations of both wars. And I hope that younger readers might learn, especially from Julienne’s story, that while some are born heroes, others become so step by step, choice by choice.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m outlining a Cold War novel set in the late 1950s and drafting a collection of music-themed children’s stories and related etudes for my piano students. 😊
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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