The Harbour Master’s Secret
Jacques Dumont has lived an eventful life. After a youth spent in the Belgian Congo, where he both finds and loses love, Jacques returns to his Belgian homeland. There, he is drawn into the resistance against the Nazi invaders. The Harbour Master’s Secret follows Jacques’ life under the Nazi regime in Ostend, where he relentlessly searches for the daughter he left behind in Africa.
Thomas based his protagonist on a childhood family friend, and the novel honors the memory of a man who was charismatic, brave, and uniquely able to move between worlds. The narrative is at its strongest when grounded in the historical details of the subject’s life. Particularly impressive is the way Thomas conveys Jacques’s command of languages, weaving French, Dutch, Spanish, and English into the story without ever leaving the English reader behind. This facility with language acts as both a survival tool and a window into Jacques’s character.
The search for his daughter provides a compelling emotional core; the reader can feel his sense of loss and longing throughout. While many World War II novels focus on history-changing battles, this one honors the quieter but no less remarkable story of one man’s impact and survival.
