{"title":"Jan Brokken","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the poignant and beautifully rendered worlds of Jan Brokken. From gripping historical narratives to deeply personal stories, discover why critics hail his evocative prose and insightful storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"jungle-rudy-book-jan-brokken-9780714531038","title":"Jungle Rudy","description":"\u003cp\u003eJungle Rudy moves between biography, history, anthropology and travel. Rudy Truffino was a legendary figure who established a civilization in the heart of the jungle, performed opera, and became one of the natives. When in 1956 he became lost in the rainforest of the Orinocco in Venezuela, the Pemon Indians saved him from death by starvation and he became immersed in their culture. He helped establish a National Park in the area and led many expeditions to the Auyan Tepi. Jan Brokken follows in his footsteps to discover the real Rudy Truffino.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJan Brokken is one of Holland's most highly regarded writers with a passion for travel. He has published novels as well as travel narratives and literary journalism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49611886919953,"sku":"GOR004548247","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49650624463121,"sku":"GOR003383267","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0714531030.jpg?v=1751421096"},{"product_id":"rainbird-book-jan-brokken-9780864424693","title":"The Rainbird","description":"Set in Gabon, Central Africa, Jan Brokken chronicles the journeys and encounters of past European explorers between Europe and Africa.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49659238023441,"sku":"GOR004780838","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53580197724433,"sku":"GOR012431757","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53702751027473,"sku":"GOR004058643","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0864424698.jpg?v=1750746805"},{"product_id":"just-book-jan-brokken-9781950354566","title":"The Just","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe remarkable story of how a consul and his allies helped save thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in one of the greatest rescue operations of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eJan Zwartendijk was just a businessman who worked for Philips, a manufacturer of lightbulbs and radios--until he became Dutch consul and concocted a secret plan that would ultimately save over 2,000 Jews from the Holocaust. An unsung hero, those he saved knew him only as \"Mr. Philips Radio.\" This is his story.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the capital of Lithuania, desperate Jewish refugees faced annihilation in the Holocaust. That was when Zwartendijk--with the help of Chiune Sugihara, the consul for Japan--chose to break his country's diplomatic rules. Together, the two officials opened a route to freedom. Zwartendijk issued thousands of visas to the Dutch colony of Curaçao on the other side of the world, and Sugihara ensured a clear path, allowing refugees to travel on the Trans-Siberian Express all through Soviet Russia to Vladivostok, further to Japan, and onwards to China.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMany of these Jewish refugees survived, but Zwartendijk and Sugihara were both shunned by their own countries after the war, their courageous actions left unheralded.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn The Just, renowned author Jan Brokken wrests this story from oblivion and traces the journeys of a number of the rescued Jews. 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In October 1999, eleven Antilleans attended the service held to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin's death. This service, held in the Warsaw church where the composer's heart is kept in an urn, was an opportunity for these Antilleans to express their debt of gratitude to Chopin, whose influence is central to Antillean music history. Press coverage of this event caused Dutch novelist and author Jan Brokken (b. 1949) to start writing this book, based on notes he took while living on Curaçao from 1993 to 2002.  Anyone hoping to discover an overlooked chapter of Caribbean music and music history will be amply rewarded with this Dutch-Caribbean perspective on the pan-Caribbean process of creolization. On Curaçao, the history and legacy of slavery shaped culture and music, affecting all the New World. Brokken's portraits of prominent Dutch Antillean composers are interspersed with cultural and music history. He puts the Dutch Caribbean's contributions into a broader context by also examining the nineteenth-century works by pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk from New Orleans and Manuel Saumell from Cuba. Brokken explores the African component of Dutch Antillean music--examining the history of the rhythm and music known as tambú as well as American jazz pianist Chick Corea's fascination with the tumba rhythm from Curaçao. The book ends with a discussion of how recent Dutch Caribbean adaptations of European dance forms have shifted from a classical approach to contemporary forms of Latin jazz.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50387688292625,"sku":"CIN1628461853G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52337746673937,"sku":"NLS9781628461855","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1628461853.jpg?v=1763482058"},{"product_id":"just-book-jan-brokken-9781912854219","title":"The Just","description":"The remarkable story of how a consul and his allies helped save thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in one of the greatest rescue operations of the twentieth century.    In May 1940, desperate Jewish refugees in Kaunas, the capital of Lithuania, faced annihilation in the Holocaust — until an ordinary Dutch man became their saviour.    Over a period of ten feverish days, Jan Zwartendijk, the newly appointed Dutch consul, wrote thousands of visas that would ostensibly allow Jews to travel to the Dutch colony of Curaçao on the other side of the world. With the help of Chiune Sugihara, the consul for Japan, while taking great personal and professional risks, Zwartendijk enabled up to 10,000 men, women, and children to escape the country on the Trans-Siberian Express, through Soviet Russia to Japan and then on to China, saving them from the Nazis and the concentration camps.    Most of the Jews whom Zwartendijk helped escape survived the war, and they and their descendants settled in America, Canada, Australia, and other countries. Zwartendijk and Sugihara were true heroes, and yet they were both shunned by their own countries after the war, and their courageous, unstinting actions have remained relatively unknown.    In The Just, renowned Dutch author Jan Brokken wrests this heroic story from oblivion and traces the journeys of a number of the rescued Jews. This epic narrative shows how, even in life-threatening circumstances, some people make the just choice at the right time. It is a lesson in character and courage.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50697933848849,"sku":"NGR9781912854219","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/191285421X.jpg?v=1751281917"},{"product_id":"just-book-jan-brokken-9781950354580","title":"The Just","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"If I had known Jan Zwartendijk's story before, I would have had filmed that.\"\u003cbr\u003e --Steven Spielberg\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Brokken brings these largely unknown men to vivid life, and few readers will come away from the book untouched by their stories. A deeply moving account of a few brave men who worked against the Nazi horror in the early days of World War II.\"\u003cbr\u003e --\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe remarkable story of how a consul and his allies helped save thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in one of the greatest rescue operations of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eJan Zwartendijk was just a businessman who worked for Philips, a manufacturer of lightbulbs and radios--until he became Dutch consul and concocted a secret plan that would ultimately save over 2,000 Jews from the Holocaust. An unsung hero, those he saved knew him only as \"Mr. Philips Radio.\" This is his story.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the capital of Lithuania, desperate Jewish refugees faced annihilation in the Holocaust. That was when Zwartendijk--with the help of Chiune Sugihara, the consul for Japan--chose to break his country's diplomatic rules. Together, the two officials opened a route to freedom. Zwartendijk issued thousands of visas to the Dutch colony of Curaçao on the other side of the world, and Sugihara ensured a clear path, allowing refugees to travel on the Trans-Siberian Express all through Soviet Russia to Vladivostok, further to Japan, and onwards to China.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMany of these Jewish refugees survived, but Zwartendijk and Sugihara were both shunned by their own countries after the war, their courageous actions left unheralded.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn The Just, renowned author Jan Brokken wrests this story from oblivion and traces the journeys of a number of the rescued Jews. This epic narrative shows how, even in life-threatening circumstances, some people make the right choice at the right time.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"He [Zwartendijk] filled desperate lives with hope during a period of great darkness, and his actions will remain a beacon of decency and righteousness for generations to come.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e--Former President Bill Clinton\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51058989203729,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51058991726865,"sku":"NIN9781950354580","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/195035458X.jpg?v=1751348864"},{"product_id":"baltic-souls-book-jan-brokken-9781957363943","title":"Baltic Souls","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA monumental journey through Baltic history and culture, in which we encounter well-known personalities and forgotten ones, and a disconcerting picture of Europe in the twentieth century.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom 1999 to 2010, Jan Brokken explored life stories in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The result was his masterly\u0026gt;\u003cem\u003eBaltic Souls\u003c\/em\u003e, available here for the first time in English. Brokken uncovered the stories of famous artists and writers such as Mark Rothko, Sergei Eisenstein, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Lipchitz, who were all born in the regions bordering the Baltic Sea before leaving to build their work abroad, spreading a bit of the Baltic soul across Europe and America.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLess well known were the stories of people such as the Rozes and their family bookstore in Riga, or the von Wrangels, the ultimate descendants of the Baltic barons. Or the story of the titanic struggle that violist Gidon Kremer fought with his father in Riga, who was burdened by the death of thirty-five family members in concentration camps. Or the story of Loreta Asanavičiūte, who was run over by a Russian tank in 1991.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is this melancholy imbued with fatalism, this vitality forged by the upheavals of history, this appetite for reading, music, and art, that enriches the portraits painted by Jan Brokken.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConducted in the style of a travel diary where chance encounters and biographical sketches mingle, \u003cem\u003eBaltic Souls\u003c\/em\u003e makes us feel the cruelty and violence of an era, but also the tenderness and solidarity of an entire people, united across borders.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51059913163025,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51059915948305,"sku":"NIN9781957363943","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52111449882897,"sku":"NGR9781957363943","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52125234069777,"sku":"GOR014493803","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53211182727441,"sku":"CIN1957363940G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1957363940.jpg?v=1750771654"},{"product_id":"music-of-the-netherlands-antilles-book-jan-brokken-9781496820112","title":"The Music of the Netherlands Antilles","description":"Anyone hoping to discover an overlooked chapter of Caribbean music and music history will be amply rewarded with this Dutch-Caribbean perspective on the pan-Caribbean process of creolization. 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