Against the Odds

Marjolijn Hof (author)

Translated by JH & JW Prins

Allen & Unwin, Australia: June 2011: 128pp

ISBN: 9781742375083 

Genres: realistic fiction

Issues: ethics, service, war

'Every now and then [my father] went off to war. At least once a year. You're heading the wrong way when you go off to a war. It's better to stay as far away from wars as you can. But my father is a doctor and they need doctors in a war. My father likes to be needed.' (p1)

Young Kiki doesn't like her father going away, especially not to an area where she knows there is danger. She is very aware of all the things that could go wrong – stray bullets, disease, soldiers mistaking him for the enemy, car accident, plane crash... Kiki's list is endless. Her mother tries to reassure her by explaining about 'odds'. Kiki doesn't really understand what her mother means but she does think that if the odds of her not having a father are small, then surely they could be made smaller. So she sets about reducing the odds in some heart-breakingly sad and bleakly funny ways without really considering the consequences of her actions. When her father really does go missing, Kiki becomes even more determined to do something – anything – in an almost superstitious belief that if she sacrifices enough her father will return.

It is very unusual to find narratives written in the first-person from the perspective of such a young person. Although it's not directly stated, Kiki can be no more than eight. Hof manages to maintain the Kiki's voice superbly, projecting the irrational logic of a child, the magical thinking that often makes it so very difficult for adults to understand a child's actions. Yet within that child's voice, Hof manages to portray the complexity of Kiki's mother's and grandmother's anger and desperation. A thought-provoking narrative that has the economy of a good line drawing, Against the Odds is a remarkable first novel and one that explores the complex nature of today's conflict ridden world. Too often, in celebrating the men and women who serve, those who love them and let them go are forgotten. Against the Odds ensures that those voices are heard.

For that reason readers should ignore the rather uninformative and unemotive cover and trust the story.