The Rescue
Publisher: Atlas Contact
A story about courage and the question of what you would do for someone else
Over 15.000 copies sold
On a cold winter evening, seventy-year-old Leah accidentally drives her car into a canal. A crowd gathers on the quay, but no one acts. Except for Mirjam, a young student who desperately tries to save her. She simply cannot watch someone drown. Years later, the two women look back on that defining moment, an act of courage that irrevocably shaped both their lives.
The Rescue is a powerful and profoundly moving true story about fate, chance, and human vulnerability. It raises urgent and universal questions: When someone is in need, do we act or do we look away? Who do we choose to be in a moment that matters most? With elegant restraint and psychological precision, Koelemeijer has crafted a narrative that is deeply personal and philosophically resonant – a literary meditation on compassion, responsibility, and defining moral choices.
Praise:
‘An impressive book about urgent moral choices. Who risks their own life to save another, and who stays safely on the sidelines? The Rescue is a beautifully composed story that makes us reflect on the very nature of humanity.’ – ••••• NRC
‘Stunning and suspenseful. Were it not for its afterword, The Rescue could readily be taken for fiction.’ – de Volkskrant
