The Light After The War - Anita Abriel

I really, really wanted to like this book. I kept reading with the hope that I would enjoy it more as I got into it, and I was so disappointed in the end when I didn’t. Disappointed because I feel that the story had so much potential, but just didn’t live up to it.

Vera and Edith are two Hungarian Jewish women from Budapest who survived the war after Vera’s mother pushes them to safety from cattle cars bound for Auschwitz. The best friends survive by hiding on an Austrian farm, and end up in Naples after the war, and then Caracas, searching to find ways to keep living their lives despite everything they have lost.

My main issue with this book is that I felt like I was reading a light romance novel, where all the characters are flat and undeveloped, with simple, and completely predictable plot lines. Vera is too serious, Edith too frivolous (so much so that she is completely unbelievable, especially after all she has been through), one character too jealous, another too stubborn, etc etc. From what I have read the author was inspired by her own mother’s experiences during and after the war, and this is why I wanted to read the story in the first place. But there is so much depth lacking from the narrative that I couldn’t invest myself in any of the characters or the plot. Even the predictability would have been OK if there had just been more depth and feeling.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Art of Resistance - Justus Rosenberg

This memoir is incredible! Brilliantly and beautifully written, a story of a few years that lasts a lifetime. I literally could not put it down, and it followed me in my dreams... (I also did end up reading parts of it in the middle of the night when one of my kids woke me up).

Justus Rosenberg’s journey from Danzig to the US via France and Germany during and after just WW2 is quite simply amazing. He left Danzig to study in Paris (a great decision made by his parents at the time), and after the invasion of France in 1940 ended up in Marseille, then Grenoble, then various areas in the Drôme, before joining a US battalion and then the official refugee aid agency at the time (before it became the UNHCR). He spent time working to help refugees get out of France while being a refugee himself, escaped capture to then join the Résistance proper. I loved reading about his experiences making his way around France, living with Surrealists such as André Breton, working undercover in Grenoble (the city where I grew up), and his days as a flâneur in Paris. I really enjoyed the author’s descriptions of flânerie, descriptions that match my own personal way of discovering a new place I call home as well as old ones. I also loved how his memoir is peppered with his own personal thoughts and interpretations of events and possible future events, memories clear as day to both author and reader all these decades later.

Justus Rosenberg knows his story of survival and resistance is incredible but also knows that it was very much a mix of circumstance, luck, place, time, his observation skills, his quick thinking, his education, and also due to how he looked (young for his age and blond with blue eyes). But to me Justus didn’t just survive, he made the most of his circumstances to help others as much as he could, even when his own situation was pretty dire. He is such as inspiration and I can’t wait to read about more of his life (those FBI files sound very interesting!).

Justus Rosenberg will be 100 years old in 2021. His story is amazing, and in my opinion a must read, both in terms of how we need to remember the past, but also because his life philosophy is something that I think would bring hope to many, and maybe inspire many more to be like him. I am certainly inspired.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this amazing memoir in exchange for an honest review!

The Knife-Edge Path - Patrick T. Leahy

Geli Straub, Berliner, ex Abwehr spy, sits out the war waiting for her husband Gunther who she has not heard from since the siege of Leningrad. A chance encounter with a ranked SS member who also happens to be her neighbor leads her to revisit her past as a spy past in order to find out more information about another SS officer named Kurt Langsdorff. Geli takes on the identity of a French woman and closes in on Kurt, but things are not all as they seem...

The Knife-Edge Path is part historical fiction, part spy novel; a story based in Germany towards the end of WW2, and later on in post-war France. It is the story of how evil pervaded through the Nazi occupation but also of how not everyone was who their appearance said they were. It is a well-written novel with well-formed human characters traveling along paths where the balance between evil and less evil is not as clear cut as it may seem. I did enjoy how each main character is developed into a complex being, and that there is no real reason why you want to root for any of them.

I did find some parts of the novel confusing, especially when the timeline jumps around without any real notice. Does the concentration camp scene take place in real time or in the past? When in the past?! And I also found some of the secondary characters a bit too caricatured, their images displaying as deformed in my imagination. There is also an element of the unbelievable in the plot, mainly in the love story aspect, as everything happens quite fast. I couldn’t take to Geli at all, I found her actions distasteful and weird at times (she seemed to be more interested in getting cigarettes from the fat SS officer, even if it meant flirting with him or further, than actually finding out information on her missing husband). There are areas that I wish the author hadn’t cloaked in darkness so much (the husband story for example, was he actually real?!). But these are all minor details, The Knife-Edge Path is interesting, compulsively readable, and could be a good start to a line of WW2 spy novels in the vein of Alan Furst.

Hidden In The Shadows - Imogen Matthews

As someone who devours historical fiction (especially fiction set during WW2), and who lived right in the Veluwe (Apeldoorn to be exact) for a few years, I was really interested in reading Imogen Matthew’s novel Hidden In The Shadows. Partially based on true stories, Hidden In The Shadows is the sequel to the author’s first novel, The Hidden Village. The Hidden Village ends with a secret hideout in the Veluwe woods being discovered by Nazis, and Hidden In The Shadows begins right where The Hidden Village left off. The story is told through the voices of two narrators, Wouter and Laura, who became separated while fleeing the Nazis. Wouter’s narrative is mainly focused on finding Laura, while Laura’s is more focused on surviving the war in general.

All in all the story is well written and engaging, although I found Laura’s use of present tense a little jarring, especially as Wouter’s voice uses the past tense. I also found it a bit hard to understand when certain events happen as there is a time delay between both narrators. There is no clear indication of date at the top of each chapter, so it can sometimes be a little confusing (especially as the time hops all over the place between chapters). I also found the characters a little one dimensional; especially Wouter. His story doesn’t always make complete sense, and he just seems self-absorbed and just kind of boring really. There were other characters who deserved more attention in my opinion (Emil for example). And there are also a few loose ends that should have been tied up (Klaus for example - his story needed a conclusion in my opinion).

I loved that the story is set in a part of The Netherlands that we don’t read about often, and also talks of how the general population suffered at the hands of the Nazis during the occupation. It’s important to remember the stories of the everyday people who hid those persecuted even though they barely had enough food to survive themselves, even though they risked death if discovered. For most of the novel Laura is on the run, staying in different places frequently. This was a great way for the author to show how the Dutch population survived the war, how some readily joined the resistance, some collaborated with the Nazis, and some just reluctantly did what they had to to survive.

As I hadn’t read The Hidden Village I did feel a bit lost at first - I had no idea who all the characters were and struggled to imagine what the hidden village looked like. So I do think that the reader will probably get more out of Hidden In The Shadows if they read The Hidden Village first. I personally think that both books deserve to be together as one book, with some parts of the plot and some of the characters fleshed out a little more. I would have loved to read more about Emil for example!

Agent Jack - Robert Hutton

This story is absolutely fascinating! Most of the events and history of this whole story were redacted or classified for decades (until 2014), and the amount of research that must have gone into writing this story from beginning to end is incredible! For that alone I recommend reading this book.

Agent Jack is the story of Eric Roberts, a bank clerk with the ability to make people like and trust him, who becomes an MI5 agent. Before WW2 he infiltrates groups of Communists and then Fascists, but after WW2 breaks out he becomes Jack King, the agent who manages to bring down a huge network of Nazi sympathizers and spies in Britain (sometimes named the 5th Column during the Nazi invasion of Europe). He poses as a secret Gestapo agent, and builds his “network” of people who are pushing for Hitler to win the war. This is the way MI5 were able to bring the 5th Column down from the inside without the general public having any knowledge of it.

Despite the fact that this book is very well written and researched, and that the whole story really is fascinating (and true), I found myself often getting bogged down in the details, and after putting the book down I often had to prod myself to go back to it and finish it. Every time a new person enters the scene we are given their entire background which tends to bring the flow of the narrative to a halt. Sometimes it wasn’t too much of an issue, at other times I felt like I had forgotten where we were in the timeline and had to go back and check. I do appreciate a good explanation and detail when it matters (Rothschild’s background is very important for example), but sometimes it was a bit overkill, especially with people who weren’t really that involved.

All in all though this is a very interesting piece of history that I think should be read - that there were so many Nazi sympathizers in Britain during WW2 is something that is generally overlooked, and Agent Jack provides some great information on how something could have gone differently along the way and changed the entire outcome of the war.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Writer - J.C. Maetis

The Writer is actually the story of two writers, Johannes and Mathias, and the network of people who help them survive the war in Nazi-occupied Austria. It is a story of survival, crime, terrible brutality, and also of love amidst the darkness of the time. The chain of events in the story are very true to actual events in history, and the story itself, while fiction, could easily have been a true story. I enjoyed the grey areas between good and evil, the credibility of the plot, and also the overall likeability of most of the characters. I also enjoyed how well the author develops the villains in the plot, they really helped turn the novel into a historical fiction thriller, rather than it being just plain historical fiction.

I liked how J.C. Maetis decided to forego the usual and most obvious WW2 plot settings and instead used Vienna as the center of the action, and Sobibór as example of a death camp. It introduces readers to the realities of the Anschluss, to how rapidly anti-Jewish laws were forced upon the Austrian population, and how terrifying it was to be Jewish and Austrian at the time. I also liked how The Writer is both historical fiction and thriller, and the initial sense of foreboding that builds up in the first chapters develops into tremendous nail-biting suspense that has the reader fearing the next page but not able to put the book down until they reach the end.

One thing that I would personally have liked to see would have been a better idea of dates within the storyline (maybe at the top of each chapter), as the story jumps forward quite a bit in some places. I kept thinking we were still in 1938 but we were really already in 1942, and had to go back a few times just to check at what point I was in terms of WW2. Not really a huge deal though!

All in all The Writer is a great read, with the right balance of real life events, fiction, and suspense, and it keeps the reader entertained until the very end. There are some moments that probably require a trigger warning in terms of graphic death scenes, but I’m glad the author didn’t shy away from the absolutely horrific unique goal of the Nazi run death camp Sobibór – this is something that should never be forgotten by anyone. I really loved how the novel fits both the thriller and the historical fiction genres, and readers of both will enjoy it tremendously.

The Shadow King - Maaza Mengiste

I was so excited when I saw that Maaza Mengiste’s new novel was coming out this year! After devouring Beneath The Lion’s Gaze last year, and falling in love with the beautiful writing, I was really excited to jump into The Shadow King. And The Shadow King broke my heart just as much as Beneath The Lion’s Gaze did… If not more. Maaza Mengiste is both poet and storyteller, and in my opinion her words should be read by all. The historical fiction market is literally saturated with the same overdone WW2 stories when there are so many stories from that era that have yet to be told – The Shadow King is one of them.

Set in the mid 1935’s in Ethiopia, The Shadow King is the story of Mussolini’s army’s advance into Ethiopia with the aim to stamp out the image of their previous failure and colonize the country. Told through the eyes of Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassi’s army, his wife Aster who rises above all of the disappointments and pain in her life to lead a group of women into war, and Hirut, their servant, who rises above both of them as a guerilla, free and then captured again. It is also the story of terrible cruelties (on both sides), but also the immense power of women. I fell in love with Hirut, and I think she will remain one of my favorite fictional characters forever (right up there with Jacqueline from Marge Piercy’s Gone To Soldiers).

The Shadow King has so many layers, and jumps between voices and times, but in a manner that is fluid, and not confusing for the reader. I loved how the author uses memories based on photographs to tell parts of the story that cannot be told from Kidane, Aster, or Hirut’s perspective. It rounds out the narrative perfectly, and allows the reader to have a larger perspective on the war, the country, and the emperor, and the time. I wasn’t expecting to burn through this novel rapidly, as Maaza Mengiste’s writing demands one absorb her words, and sit awhile in her imagery, so I was perfectly happy to take my time with this one. I would have happily spent another 400 pages swimming through her words, spending time in Hirut’s presence and learning more about a country I have never visited, and that I still know too little about.

Is it too much to ask when the next book will be available? (I’m just kidding, but not really. Thank you Maaza Mengiste for your incredible work!).

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in return for my honest review.

Renia's Diary - Renia Spiegel

Renia Spiegel was a Polish Jewish teenager who was born and raised in an area of Poland that was near the border with Romania. An avid diarist and poet, Renia wrote about her life in her journal right up to her untimely death at the hands of the Gestapo in 1942. I’ve read mentions of comparisons to Anne Frank but the only similarities between the two books are that both girls were Jewish and wrote journals. Other than that their diaries are very different. Where Anne’s diary detailed her own personal thoughts and feelings, she also recounted much of what was happening on the outside, even when she was in hiding. Renia’s diary reads much more like a regular teenager’s diary, focusing mainly on her friends, loves, and school, and mentions of what are happening to her country and the restrictions imposed on the Jews, as well as fears and hopes of the population in general are only often mentioned in passing, or in the background. This could be because her diary was a way to escape from the world around her, or just because she wasn’t interested in recounting horrifying events in detail. In any case if you read this book looking for Anne Frank you will possibly find it a little difficult to read. If you read it knowing that you are reading a teenager’s intimate diary, and place yourself in her world, you will see what a lovely writer and poet Renia was.

Some entries are a little tedious, as I’m sure many entries of my own teenage journals are, and some are a perfect rendition of what it is to be a teenager. I really appreciated the epilogue written by Renia’s little sister, Elizabeth, who survived the war with their mother, as it helped place Renia in a world outside her journal - I think this part of the book should maybe be read before the diary as it allows the reader a greater perspective of who Renia was, and where she lived. I also really appreciated reading Renia’s poetry as I found much to understand about what was happening around her in those verses.

I’m so glad that Elizabeth finally decided to publish her sister’s story and that I had the chance to read it. I’m left saddened by how Renia’s life was cut short, amidst millions of others, but hopeful that there will always be people to uncover and tell these stories. We will never forget.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

Cilka's Journey - Heather Morris

I wasn’t a huge fan of The Tattooist of Auschwitz for a few reasons (embellishments, lack of clarity on whether it was fact or fiction, lack of research in some areas etc), but I wanted to give Cilka’s Journey a try as I wanted to know more about the woman who had found herself in such a difficult position in such a terrible place in Auschwitz at the young age of 16. I finished this novel feeling the same way I felt with the first: unfinished, slightly discontent, but also feeling guilty about not feeling better about the novel.

Cilka Klein arrives in Auschwitz at the age of 16 and survives three years of the hell that it was, enduring the “special treatment” of rape and assault by camp commanders. After Auschwitz is liberated she is tried and convicted to 15 years of hard labor by a Soviet court, her crime being that she slept with the enemy. Cilka then goes on to survive 10 years of the Vorkuta gulag in Siberia, where she ends up meeting her future husband. After their release they spend the remaining 5 decades of their life together in (then) Czechoslovakia. This novel however only really depicts Cilka’s life in the gulag, with some flashbacks to Auschwitz, and a few others to her life before WW2.

There are so many parts of Cilka’s story that need to be told (her role in Auschwitz and why she did what she had to do to survive, the fact that rape is used as a weapon in war, Stalin’s gulags and purges etc), but in order to give readers a real, detailed overview of the horrors that everyday people were forced to survive I feel that one 400 or so page novel just can’t do it. In Cilka’s Journey we see the world she is forced to live in through her eyes, we see the conditions of the gulag and the set up through her eyes, but there is not enough information provided on exactly how, where, why, and who. Criminal trusties appear, but how did they get there in the first place? What happened to Cilka’s friends after her release? How do the doctors and nurses get there and where do they go next? How are the prisoners convicted in the first place (Cilka’s trial is barely depicted, there are more pages on her journey to Vorkuta than on the conviction). And so on. I feel like I needed more, rather than a sort of passing overview.

We MUST talk about the gulags and the way they caused generations of trauma that is still very visible today (my stepfather’s parents and grandparents were ripped from their homes and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia, and that time spent there is still visible generations later). And we just talk about how women were sent to Siberia and how they survived the camps. But there is so much more to tell. Maybe I am asking too much from one book, but maybe I am just not content with the mix of fact and fiction, and feel like this novel would be better as a TV series, in the same way that I thought The Tattooist of Auschwitz would too.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

In The Warsaw Ghetto - Glenn Haybittle

This is an intense story spanning three years of life in the Warsaw ghetto from 1940-1943. The story is told from both Ala’s point of view and her uncle Max’s, chapters alternating between both characters. Ala is a 19 year old aspiring ballerina who has up until the invasion of Poland by the German army lived a mainly privileged life in a wealthy Jewish family. Max, her uncle, converted to Catholicism in his youth, mainly to spite his father and continues to pine for a woman who he courted years before during his time in college. Their entire family ends up being forced into the Warsaw ghetto, witnessing the horrors of the Nazis first hand from the first days of the ghetto to the last days of the uprising.

The prose is somewhat bloated at times, leading to some frustration while reading as it can sound stilted rather than poetic, but it’s not so much of an issue as the book advances. I found the first few chapters a little tough to get into but it does get better after a while.

The story itself is well researched and written however the constant sexual references that appear all over the place, for no specific reason, ruined the story for me. Yes, Ala is at an age where she is discovering her sexuality, and feels trapped in the ghetto and in her life, but many of the references read like a male fantasy rather than actual teenage/young adult thoughts/actions. I found these references distracted from the story itself which conveys the time, the plot, the fear, and the uncertainties very well. It’s painfully obvious from most of the scenes depicted that the author is a male writing about female sexuality, and I found myself rolling my eyes every time Ala’s nakedness or fantasies or Sabina’s body and sudden interest in Max’s penis were mentioned. I would have found this book to be a good read without any of those scenes, and in my opinion they are unnecessary, and actually diminished the importance and intensity of the story for me. They really feel like you are entering into some guy’s wet dream amidst death and tragedy. I had the same issues years ago while reading Leon Uris’ novel Mila 18, and this novel feels kind of like a rehash of the same.

For those interested in learning more about the Warsaw Uprising I suggest reading some memoirs or non-fiction. I read this book until the end because I wanted to see some kind of closure on the characters, but the last few pages really hammered home the author’s misogyny that runs through the book. I don’t want to add spoilers, but there was really no need for the last page of the main story (before the post script). It just made me feel sick.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this novel.

The Huntress - Kate Quinn

I couldn’t resist putting my name on the library wait list for this one: WW2, Nazi hunters, female pilots, intrigue, what more could I want?! The Huntress is the story of war, water, evil, puzzles, and ultimately if resolution, in different forms.

Ian Graham, a famous British war correspondent has put down his pen for good and is using his skills to track down Nazis who escaped being caught at the end of WW2. He is joined by American charmer Tony who speaks many languages and has many skills, and his wife, former Soviet pilot Nina. On the other side of the Atlantic Jordan McBride takes photos with her Leica, dreams of becoming a famous photojournalist while wondering why her father’s new wife doesn’t seem to be altogether truthful about her previous life. All of these characters come together in a story that is historical fiction, literature, thriller, and a detective novel, and I couldn’t put it down!

I love how Kate Quinn writes. I have been meaning to read The Alice Network for ages now, and reading The Huntress pushes me to put it on top of my list. I love how she doesn’t rush the reader, each part of the storyline, each character, is thoroughly researched, structured, and planned, the reader is drawn into the plot slowly, collecting hints and pieces of the puzzle along the way. I also thoroughly enjoyed the amount of research that the author did to not only recreate a historically accurate story, but also to provide a voice to the real people who harmed, helped, fought, and hunted during WW2.

A definite must read if you love reading WW2 historical fiction!

Last Witnesses - Svetlana Alexievich

I have family members who were forced out of their homes and sent to Siberia by Stalin, later to be released and left homeless and stateless once the tides turned on the USSR In 1941, which has caused me to neglect to think or really learn about the actual toll that WW2 took on the USSR in general. My WW2 interests have most often been focused on Nazi crimes against Jewish populations in the USSR, but I never really stopped to also think about how the non-Jewish and non-collaborating population was really treated. Reading Last Witnesses by Svetlana Alexievich gave me a whole new perspective on how horrific the invading Nazi army was to the Soviet population in general, with absolutely no regards as to whether they were killing and torturing children, women, men, or animals. They bombed, strafed, tortured, and murdered their way through the land, leaving countless victims along the way. And once they were done with murder, they killed via famine and disease, another form of torture.

Last Witnesses is a very, very hard book to read and I would advise readers to take it slowly. I had to put it down a few times, for several days at a time, not just because of the difficulty of the subject matter, or because of the sheer volume of stories within the pages, but also because I wanted each one to stand out, and not fall within the masses of numbers. When you see the words “26 million dead”, while huge, these words don’t convey the real enormity of life lost during WW2 in the USSR. A third of the 26 million were soldiers, a third civilians murdered directly by the Nazis, and a last third also civilians, murdered indirectly via war-related famine and disease. Last Witnesses provides the stories of many children who survived the war and lived on with memories that no child should ever have to remember. The Nazi army literally killed at random on their push inland, and portrayed a brutality that went beyond what they portrayed in other countries (and that says a huge amount, as we know).

This book was originally published in 1985 in the USSR, and this new edition has been beautifully translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The emotion, the pain, the suffering, and the incomprehension of these childhood memories comes across fully, you can hear the adults voices struggling to remember, to evoke the images that haunt them, and you can still feel the trauma that war caused decades before. Many or most of these voices must have now passed on, making it even more important for us to remember them, and to remember what they endured in the name of war.

These voices should be heard, and imprinted in our minds. Thanks to Svetlana Alexievich for this incredible work (I’m not surprised that she has been awarded a Nobel Prize for her incredible talents), and to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book.

Invisible Heroes of World War II - Jerry Borrowman

Invisible Heroes of World War II is a collection of unique stories of WW2 heroes that we don’t hear so much about, or, as the subtitle more accurately conveys: “Extraordinary Wartime Stories of Ordinary People”. The first half of the book focuses on the stories of individuals, the second on groups of people who performed heroic feats together over the course of the war. The main focus is on people from the US on the battlefield, behind enemy lines, and at home.

I really enjoyed how Jerry Borrowman gave life to stories that are not so “popular” in WW2 historical fiction and movies nowadays. The story of Pat Patton, survivor of the Bataan death march, who hid in the Philippines for over a year, continuing to fight the Japanese until he was captured, and then survived capture, is incredible. The fact that the Navajo code talkers had to keep their wartime activities a secret until 1968, never mentioning how they basically helped turn the war around, is insane. The stories of the engineers, whose work was a huge part of the Allied victory were fascinating. I spent ages researching images of the Bailey Bridge and trying to visualize how amazing a feat it would have been to install one under enemy fire in the space of a few days. Incredible.

All of the stories are interesting: those missing in action, whose bodies have never been found, the woman photographer and journalist who found herself on the frontlines, the Nisei battalions whose courage saved stranded soldiers, despite the fact that their home country has incarcerated many other first and second generation Japanese-Americans. I could go on, as there are more in the book.

I personally think that there were some stories that were missing from the collection (I think all readers can probably think of their own missing stories), but as the book is mainly US-focused, maybe they wouldn’t have a real place in the book anyway. What comes to mind are the Polish Army in Monte Cassino, Italy, a huge deal especially when you know that many of the soldiers had spent time in Stalin’s gulags before being set free post German invasion of the USSR. Another story is that of the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, decimated by the Nazis in 1944, or maybe Jean Prévost, resistant in the Vercors. Obviously I would love to see these types of stories also appear more in mainstream media as they are part of my own personal heritage and legacy.

In any case, Invisible Heroes of World War II is a good read if you are interested in WW2 stories, stories of heroism, learning more about unsung heroes of war. I consider myself a bit of a know-it-all about Europe during WW2, but I learnt a lot from this book!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

The Village - Philip Duke

The Village is a fictional account of a very real part of WW2 that we don’t often hear about. Crete is the largest Greek island, located in the Mediterranean Sea with a colorful and often harsh history, having been invaded by Romans, Greeks, Turks, Germans... The Village is the story of the German invasion of Crete in 1941.

Anastasia and her husband, son and granddaughter live in the village of Ayios Stefanos, situated above the coastline; Paul Cuthbertson is a British artillery soldier, and Dieter Lehmann is a German paratrooper. All of their lives become entwined in ways that none of them would expect. When the German paratroopers first invade the island they are met with fierce defense from the British, New Zealand, and Cretan forces, but once they take control of the airstrip they effectively are able to take over the island. However, the Cretan Resistance doesn’t back down, and in turn the German forces dole out some horrific punishments on the general population. While The Village is fiction, the author Philip Duke based it on fact, and many of the events in the book are quite real.

I was a bit thrown off at first, as the author skips between scenes without much transition (and between characters too a bit further on) but about 30 pages in I suddenly realized I was hooked and couldn’t put the book down! I enjoyed how the author attempted to maintain humanity in all of the main characters, despite the atrocities committed. There are lots of graphic descriptions of battles and massacres, which are not for the faint of heart, but there are also some beautiful descriptions of the island and Cretan people in general. This creates a special balance, where the reader imagines the contrast between the brutality of war, and the timelessness of the island’s beauty.

There were a few things that I wasn’t too sure about (the end is a little predictable for example), but all in all this was a great read, especially because the author does not romanticize war in the way that many writers do when creating stories about WW2, and also because the battle of Crete is one we don’t read about very often. It appears that the author has written another novel on the island, and I’m intrigued to read this one now too!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

We Must Be Brave - Frances Liardet

I initially thought that this was going to be an England during WW2 story. But this is not a WW2 story. This is a beautiful story of survival, love, and strength, which is centered around something that happens in WW2. I initially made a beeline for it because I thought it was a WW2 story, but as the story developed I found myself falling in love with the characters, and with village life in southern England.    

On the night of a terrible German bombing campaign on Southampton in England, Ellen Parr finds a little girl sleeping on one of the evacuation bus seats. The child’s mother dies in the bombing and the rest of her family has disappeared or has no interest in her, so Ellen and her husband take her in to live with them in their small village. And then, three years later, little Pamela’s father comes to find her and take her away with him, leaving Ellen bereft.

The story starts during WW2 but skips back and forth between Ellen’s childhood (from riches to rags because of her father’s bad investments), and her meeting with her husband Selwyn Parr, and then moves forward to the 1970’s and then to now (or nowish). It’s a story steeped in hardships and sadness, but equally in love and friendships that last longer than generations. I fell in love with Ellen’s character, her inability to forget, and the love she bestows on those around her.

The story is beautifully written and reminds me of sweeping epic novels by the Bronte sisters, a little Jane Austenesque with a smidge of Dickens too. Frances Liardet’s style takes me back to a time when I used to devour classics and be amazed at how a writer could use descriptions of a place to describe a feeling, an emotion. This isn’t a fast-paced novel, but the slow rhythm is perfect for the story. Frances Liardet creates a world and opens the door for us to enter. It made me imagine my birth village on the cusp of war too, imagining a life spent living in the same place, with the same people who know you inside and out.

I wasn’t ready for this one to finish... I fell in love with the village of Upton, with the countryside, the people, and especially with Ellen, Lucy, and William. And I fell in love with the way Frances Liardet writes and creates: I’m so glad I picked this book to read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

Monopoli Blues - Tim Clark and Nick Cook

This book is part history, part mystery, and part love story, and it is riveting! I love reading about WW2, spies, and real love stories during the war, and this book hit the spot for me in terms of it being a great balance between deeply researched fact and personal interest.

I really like to read about areas of WW2 that people rarely talk about. My step grandfather was part of the Free Polish Army that fought against the Germans at Monte Cassino (after having spent time incarcerated in Siberia and being released when Germany invaded the Soviet Union), so I found it interesting to read about how the Allies made their way up the boot well before the D-Day landings in France, as we don’t see it documented as much. Because the Italians spent a lot of time as part of the Axis we tend to dismiss them as being the “enemy” during WW2 when it is in no shape or form that simple. I love how Monopoli Blues sheds a lot of light on Italy and the Italians during the later years of the war.

Tim Clark’s father and mother met each other while they were both working for SOE (Special Operations Executive) in Italy during WW2. Marjorie was a radio operator, and Bob (Lt Bob Clark) spent his time going back and forth between Allied-held and German-held areas on different missions (retrieving POWs, sabotage missions, reconnaissance, etc). Both were based in Monopoli (hence the title of the story), and married on their return from the war.

Tim Clark was always interested in his father’s time during the war, but Bob remained tight-lipped about it during his life, only giving away few insights here and there. After he died Tim took it upon himself to discover the entire story, which ended up becoming 5 years of research, trips to Italy with and without his mother, and this book, Monopoli Blues, that he co-authored with journalist Nick Cook.

Monopoli Blues is heavy on the detail, and Tim Clark leaves no stone unturned. I appreciated this immensely because it provided so much insight into SOE and what type of work they were doing in Italy at the time. It also helps us understand how Bob ends up landing behind enemy lines, and being captured. Bob ends up spending 6 months in a Nazi held prison, and then a prison camp, before being liberated and reunited with Marjorie.

I can understand why both Bob and Marjorie (or as Tim affectionately calls them, Pop and Mop), would want to forget and put their wartime experiences behind them. I can also completely understand why Tim would want to find out the truth, because it is fascinating. It just makes me think about how many stories there are that have possibly died untold with those who lived them, and that makes me so sad. I suppose this is why I continue to write in my journals, because maybe, one day, they will be useful to someone. Who knows…

In any case, the amount of research and work and most likely tears that it must have taken to write this book is incredible. A great read for those who like to read about WW2, who also like a good mystery, and who don’t mind getting deep into the details of SOE work near and behind enemy lines.

(As a side note I recently refused to continue a book on a similar topic, where the author ham-handedly wrote a phrase stating that “most of the French collaborated with the Germans”. Having grown up in Maquis land, I know all too well how false and offensive that statement is. It was a breath of fresh air to read Monopoli Blues where the author shines a light on the difficulties of surviving in a country occupied by a brutal invader).

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy of this book!

The Things We Cannot Say - Kelly Rimmer

I had to wait a few days after I finished this one to write a review. My feelings were so mixed I wanted to give them time to straighten themselves out and see if they went more towards yay or towards nay. I’m still confused so I’m going to explain why right here. I’ve read so many WW2 related novels, most based on fact or at least somewhat true to what may have happened during that time, so I sometimes feel some writers just rehash overdone storylines or, worse, overlook historical events for the sake of a storyline rather than integrity. When it comes to those aspects Kelly Rimmer was pretty much on track in her novel: the storyline is quite original in terms of where and when it takes place, and she also seems to have stuck very close to historical accuracy. I grew up with my stepfather’s family who were forcibly removed from their homes in Poland in 1940 and sent to Siberian concentration camps before being released and sent off as refugees with no home, and no country to call their own anymore, so a lack of historical accuracy would have made me stop reading the book.

I also liked the narrative style, with the two separate voices: Alina’s voice recounting her life and the events she lived through in Poland after the German invasion, and Alice’s present day voice as she navigates through her own life and then an unexpected trip to Poland. Kelly Rimmer is also a great writer, and she creates a wonderful vision of the little town in Poland, life under occupation, and also Polish farm life.

So why are my feelings so mixed? It was all just too easy, and fell into place so well. Just so predictable and slightly unbelievable too. So much of the story is based on the romance between Alina and her boyfriend Tomasz, that it actually becomes repetitive and slightly boring. Alina is portrayed as a hero when to me she is spoiled and scared of everything. Alice is even worse, I wanted to shake her several times and tell her to get out of her own head for a moment, put down the glass of whatever alcohol she was imbibing and pull herself together. So, as you can probably gather I wasn’t a fan of the characters really... And someone should have addressed the way alcohol is used as a crutch in the novel, because Alice definitely has a problem and no one seems to have an issue with it (or maybe I’m just sensitive to it having been amidst addicts all my life, I don’t know).

So, all in all, there were many things about the story that irritated me, some things I liked, but I still stayed up reading it way past my bed time, because I did want to see what happened in the end, even though I kind of predicted it. I think this novel will appeal to a lot of people, I just needed something a little meatier, a little less romance, and a little more depth for myself.

If you like romance, WW2 stories, and don’t mind a bit of predictability, you will probably enjoy this novel.

(Side note, as I had to mention this pet peeve of mine that really bothered me in the novel: it’s “dzień dobry” not “jen dobry”. I know that is not a big issue on the grand scale of things, but for accuracy’s sake the correct spelling of the Polish word should really be used.)

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

Wunderland - Jennifer Cody Epstein

At this point in my life I have read so many WW2-based novels and memoirs, that I’m either disappointed because the content is too overdone, or overjoyed because someone takes a new angle and delves into it to create a new story. I just finished Wunderland by Jennifer Cody Epstein and all I can say is WOW. Jennifer Cody Epstein manages to recreate several eras and places that are so close to my heart, and weave together lives in a way that you literally cannot put the book down. I’m not kidding when I say I couldn’t put it down - I read Wunderland on my phone and was literally walking around the house doing chores half- heartedly with one hand while reading with the other.

Wunderland is the story of best friends Ilse and Renate in pre-war Berlin, and of Ava, Ilse’s daughter, as a small child and then teen in Berlin, as a young mother and then finally as a mother to a teenager in NYC. The novel skips between times and places, but I had no problem with that: it actually helped with the plot development and intrigue. I love novels that throw readers a breadcrumb here and there, along a winding trail, making you work for the storyline rather than just sitting along for the ride.

Jennifer Cody Epstein has amazing attention to detail, and the descriptions in the novel are brilliant. So brilliantly done that there are parts that play out in front of you, and you feel as if your eyes are glued to a window pane, unable to divert them elsewhere, as much as you want to. The depictions of Kristallnacht are so vivid and real, I actually had to breathe through the waves of nausea rolling through my body. (I had similar emotions reading Herman Wouk’s War and Remembrance).

I also found that Jennifer Cody Epstein did a great job showing just how seamlessly the isolation of the Jewish people happened in Germany, and also how in general the rest of the German population just took it in their stride that people who were once their friends, neighbors, bakers, etc, were suddenly lesser humans. It never starts with the camps. It starts with a few people sowing seeds that then develop into believed truths, and then suddenly crowds are whipped into frenzies, and eyes are blinded by hatred. I also appreciate that Wunderland doesn’t sugarcoat anything: you will most definitely not like all of the characters in the novel.

I’m so glad I read this book, and recommend it to everyone. I haven’t read any of Jennifer Cody Epstein’s other work so I’m going to jump on that in the new year, as her writing really speaks to me. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy, and to Jennifer Cody Epstein for writing such a wonderful novel!

Auschwitz Lullaby - Mario Escobar

Last week I finished a book based on a circus in WW2 and lamented the fact that the author had completely omitted to add any content on the persecution of Roma by the Nazis, and how there really isn’t much fiction about the systematic murder of nearly a quarter of the European Roma population during WW2. So I was really glad to see that Mario Escobar had written Auschwitz Lullaby, a novel heavily based on the true story of Helene Hannemann.

There are many, many books, fiction and non-fiction, on the horrors committed on the Jewish population in Europe during the Holocaust, rightfully so, they should never ever be forgotten. But there are other people who were also persecuted due to their race, and I do think it’s important that they are not forgotten either. The Roma, who have been systematically persecuted and discriminated against for centuries, are one of these groups. I applaud Mario Escobar for telling their story.

Auschwitz Lullaby is the story of Helene Hannemann, her husband Johan who is Roma, and their 5 children between 1943 and 1944. In 1943 the SS come for her family, and while she is told she is free to go, due to the fact that she is not ethnically Roma, she obviously doesn’t want to leave her family. They end up in the “Gypsy” camp in Auschwitz, where Helene and her children are separated from Johan. After a request from Josef Mengele, Helene, due to her German “Aryan” heritage and training as a nurse, is put in charge of the children’s nursery in the camp, where for a while the imprisoned Roma children, as well as some Jewish children, are able to eat a little better and enjoy clean water and even movies. The nursery ends up being a front for Mengele to keep all of the children (mainly twins) he is using for his horrific experiments, but it keeps Helene and her kids relatively safe for a while, and in return she is able to keep other children safer than they would have been in the barracks alone.

This IS fiction, but it’s so heavily based on truth that it reads like a memoir in journal format. Helene’s voice is strong and powerful, her love for her children is warmth in such a terrible place, and her heart and will to continue despite everything so inspiring. Exceptionally beautifully written in parts, the tone is however often devoid of hope – Helene knew how it would all end, and focused on making each day bearable for her children, rather than dreaming of the future. There are terrible, true descriptions of acts of horror (which one should expect if one is reading a novel based on genocide and extermination camps), and if you are looking for a happy ending, this isn’t the book for you. If you are however looking for a truthful story based on the reality of what happened during WW2, then please read this book.

My only complaint (and it's a bit of a big one) would be the use of the word “Gypsy” all through-out the book. Granted, this was the word used to describe the Romani at the time, and often still is today, although the general consensus is that it is an ethnic slur and should be phased out. Maybe there should be an added note in the author’s note about this? It just jarred me every time I read Helene referring to another woman as a “Gypsy woman”, as well as all of the generic “Gypsy” terms.

I highly recommend this book, and some of the additional reading below. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy!

The “G” Word Isn’t for You: How “Gypsy” Erases Romani Women

Genocide of European Roma

Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) in Auschwitz

The Orphan's Tale - Pam Jenoff

his book was on my Holds list from the library for months and months, and I had totally forgotten what it was about when I finally got it! Because I read so much WW2 fiction my expectations are high, and especially after reading Water For Elephants and Fires in the Dark, both amazing, a novel with a circus, travelers, and set in WW2 was going to have to be brilliant.

Sadly The Orphan's Tale didn’t do it for me. First of all there were absolutely no Roma characters which made no sense. This was a great opportunity to introduce an ethnic group of people who were persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust, especially as there isn’t much fiction available on the subject. Secondly, the storyline felt stilted, contrived, on the simple side really. I felt like I already knew exactly what was going to happen before I had read even a quarter of the book (and for the most part I was right). And some of the scenes are just ridiculous, especially those between Noa and the lad she meets in the French town, Luc. Then, thirdly, I couldn’t sympathize with any of the characters, apart from maybe the circus owner. I feel like the author was trying to create dramatic characters with human feelings, but they all fall short. I kept skipping over sentences with my eyes to get ahead because I didn’t want to hear yet again how mean Astrid was to Noa, or how Noa had a terrible secret she was hiding bla-bla-bla.

I did read the novel all the way through, and the story itself is interesting, especially as it is loosely based on people who really existed. I just feel like the execution itself was too easy, and something was really lacking for me. It did however open my eyes to a part of WW2 and the Holocaust that I wasn’t aware of before: how circuses continued to tour and also managed to shelter and save Jewish people from the Gestapo.

It’s not a bad read per se, I just expected a lot more personally. 2 stars.