Peace Weavers

Jarman’s book tackles the hard stuff for young people confronting the political subject of war and peace at a time when they are also confronted with those other hard issues: budding teenage love, diametrically opposed parental views, the problems of everyday life as a young adult.

Young Hilde, raised by her mother to despise war, is sent to live with her father on an American military base in the UK, while her mother goes on a Stop the War mission. Already hostile to her father because of his perceived desertion of his family and for presumably being pro-war because he is American, angry at being left behind by her mother, she also has to deal with her feelings for an American boy, Friedman, whose parents are committed to war with Iraq. All the complexities of war are raised by the people in her life. When, if ever, is war justified? What are the means to prevent it? How, if not through war, does one eradicate injustice?

Interwoven with Hilde’s modern life, is the story of Maethilde, a peace weaver from long ago, whose people believed that war could be averted by women from one warring tribe marrying men from the enemy side. Hilde, refusing to attend school on the military base, instead goes to work as a volunteer on an archeological dig, where she finds the clasp given to Maethilde the peace weaver, by Manfried, the man she married for the sake of peace between his tribe and hers. Prepared to go to war for the sake of justice, if need be, Maethilde, long ago, was persuaded by her mother to first try to weave peace, and only make war as a last resort.

The artifact, a symbol of both Manfried’s love for Maethilde and of the commitment of both to peace, brings Maethilde into Hilde’s dreams, pointing the way for Hilde to do her own modern day peace weaving. Unlike Maethilde, Hilde fails to avert war or the tragedy which befalls young Friedman’s family, but she does succeed in opening a few eyes to the wrongs of war.

This book is about young people, those young people who are vilified every day in the media for all sorts of social ills, taking responsibility for their world, no matter the personal consequences, taking a stand in their own way, using ancient means (weaving) and modern techniques (the Net), to try to right the wrongs committed by their elders. It is also about the weaving of peace between warring generations and trying to create respect and understanding between them.

Jarman’s book, like her political views expressed in her ‘After Words’, should be read by both young people and their parents.