“Stay Human.” - Hannie Schaft, 1944
Based on the true story of Hannie Schaft, a shy law student living in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, who never dreamed of being a fighter.
But when the lives of Hannie’s two Jewish best friends are threatened in new and terrifying ways, she realizes she can no longer ignore the insidious rise of fascism in her country.
A tale of formidable defiance told through the eyes of a young heroine so notorious that Hitler himself personally ordered her capture.
Buzzy Jackson's debut is an unputdownable novel of love, loyalty, and the limits we confront when our deepest values are tested.
BEHIND THE BOOK - I first began working on this book in the winter of 2016-2017 during a visit to Amsterdam. I didn’t know then that I’d be back several times over the next 7 years to research Hannie’s story. That work took me around the Netherlands and eventually to England, as well. I’m so grateful to the family members of the real people portrayed in the book who trusted me with their memories, and to my wise friends and colleagues in the Netherlands and USA. Below are a few mementos I collected along the way. xo Buzzy
What people are saying.
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“Paced like a thriller, with vivid action and searing emotion, this inspiring story is so relentless that you have to keep pausing to remind yourself that these events really happened. Riveting and heartbreaking.”
— Judy Blundell, author of The High Season
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“Buzzy Jackson recreates Hannie Schaft’s incendiary life out of a handful of ash and sparks. An unforgettable alloy of death and hope, To Die Beautiful is a heartrending and breathstopping novel of resistance – the more so for being the essence of truth.”
— Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity
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“Yes, To Die Beautiful is inspiring, empowering, and timely, compellingly detailed and impressively researched, but better still, it’s an immersive story of a terrifying warren of history through which our guide is the sort of hero we all need now: relatable and resolute and absolutely right. I am grateful to Buzzy Jackson for the introduction to the indomitable Hannie Schaft, a warrior I know I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.”
— Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is
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“In this thrilling fictional debut, Buzzy Jackson merges her fascinating historical research about the women of the Dutch resistance with evocative and pacy storytelling. To Die Beautiful is a riveting, moving and important novel about the courage it takes to stand up for what is right. Hannie Schaft is an inspiration.”
— Judy Batalion, New York Times bestselling author of The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos
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