Book Review: BEYOND THAT, THE SEA by Laura Spence-Ash

 

Title: BEYOND THAT, THE SEA

Author:  Laura Spence-Ash

Read: March 2024

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description:

 

As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she’ll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she’ll stay safe.

Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England.

As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life—summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea—the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends.

Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.

As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.

My musings:

 

BEYOND THAT, THE SEA is one of those rare books that come out of nowhere and totally steal your heart. Taking part over a time span of thirty years, the book tells the story of eleven year old Beatrix, who has been evacuated from war torn London to live with a family in America until the end of WWII. Whilst her parents had hoped that the separation would be a short one, it’s five long years until Beatrix can return home again, and then she has been fundamentally changed by her time with the Gregory family.

It’s hard to believe that BEYOND THAT, THE SEA is a debut novel because it is not only insightful and wise, but also written with such skill that the characters immediately came to life for me. As someone who has left my country of birth at a young age to live far away from my origins, I could relate to Beatrix’s sense of estrangement when returning to London after spending her formative years in a place where the culture was significantly different from that of her homeland. I also found it heartbreaking that she was expected to let go of the bond she had formed with her foster family during those early adolescent years, when she was especially vulnerable and far from her own family. In the time of snapchat and facebook it is sometimes hard to remember that not all that long ago it was a lot more difficult to stay in touch, even though I loved the concept of a chess game playing out through “snail-mail” postcards.

BEYOND THAT, THE SEA made me feel warm and fuzzy and teary in equal measure. I shed may tears when I though of Mrs G’s grief of losing the foster daughter she had taken in with such generosity and had come to love as her own. On the other hand, I understood the grief, resentment and jealousy Bea’s mother is experiencing, having to let her child go to another family, who are fortunate enough to escape the horror of war through the sheer luck of fate. One passage where Bea’s mother lashes out at the Gregory family for “living such a good life and eating lots of food” whilst people in London live in daily fear of bombs and have to survive on hard rations resonated with me – especially how the lottery of where you are born determines so much of your fate.

BEYOND THAT, THE SEA is a slow, character driven story exploring the meaning of family and belonging. It also reminded me of my own privilege and to be grateful that I raised my own children in peace and never had to make those terrible choices Bea's parents were forced to contamplate, out of love for their child. Written with a wisdom that will resonate through all ages, this book deeply touched me and will stay in my mind for a long time to come.

Book Review: THE LAST REUNION by Kayte Nunn

 

Title: THE LAST REUNION

Author:  Kayte Nunn

Publisher:  Hachette Australia

Read: March 2021

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

Burma, 1945. Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy: five young women in search of adventure, attached to the Fourteenth Army, fighting a forgotten war in the jungle. Assigned to run a mobile canteen, navigating treacherous roads and dodging hostile gunfire, they become embroiled in life-threatening battles of their own. Battles that will haunt the women for the rest of their lives.

Oxford, 1976. At the height of an impossibly hot English summer, a woman slips into a museum and steals several rare Japanese netsuke, including the famed fox-girl. Despite the offer of a considerable reward, these tiny, exquisitely detailed carvings are never seen again.

London and Galway, 1999. On the eve of the new millennium, Olivia, assistant to an art dealer, meets Beatrix, an elderly widow who wishes to sell her late husband's collection of Japanese art. Concealing her own motives, Olivia travels with Beatrix to a New Year's Eve party, deep in the Irish countryside, where friendships will be tested as secrets kept for more than fifty years are spilled.

Inspired by the heroic women who served in the 'forgotten war' in Burma, The Last Reunion is a heartbreaking love story and mystery by the international bestselling author of The Botanist's Daughter and The Silk House. It is also a tribute to the enduring power of female friendship.

What attracted me to this book:

 

Historical fiction has been a bit hit and miss for me lately, and from the description, THE LAST REUNION could have gone either way. Would it be, as so many others, simply a Hallmark style romance in disguise? I am very happy to be proven wrong, because this story packed some punch and I really enjoyed it from beginning to end.

My musings:

 

Have you heard of the “Wasbies”? The Women’s Auxiliary Service of Burma (“Wasbies”) were an intrepid group of women who supported the 14^th Army during WW2 by providing the troops with food and drink and boosting morale. I admit that this piece of WW2 history was new to me, and I applaud the author for bringing the service of these brave and resilient women to our attention. The Burma campaign is often referred to as the “forgotten war” because it did not garner as much attention as the events in Europe at the time, but with the creation of her five plucky female characters Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy, Nunn has made sure that the women’s contribution to the war effort will be remembered.

 

THE LAST REUNION plays out in two separate timeframes, one during the Burma Campaign and one in the present time, as an older Beatrice is getting ready to meet her fellow ex-Wasbies for a reunion. I was pleased to find that I enjoyed each timeline equally as much, perhaps thanks to the character of Olivia, who stars as the enigmatic second lead in the present-tense timeline. This was further aided by providing the atmospheric setting of Beatrice’s rambling English mansion as a backdrop, serving as a crass contrast to the humid Burmese jungle the five women served in during the war. To connect the two timelines, the author uses a rare netsuke, a miniature Japanese sculpture, traditionally used to secure pouches or other items to kimonos, which were devoid of pockets. I had great fun looking up pictures of netsukes online, and they truly are works of art! And whilst Olivia’s ulterior motive may initially have been to secure the rare netsuke of the “fox girl” for her art dealer boss, she soon falls under Beatrice’s spell as she learns more about her history.

 

I really enjoyed Nunn’s writing and it is obvious that a lot of research has gone into her story as her characters are brimming with life. It was interesting to find out more about the Wasbies and the harsh life they endured so bravely on the frontier – a part of history that should never be forgotten.

 

Summary:

 

THE LAST REUNION is a perfect example of the way that historical fiction should be written: brimming with interesting, enigmatic characters set against an atmospheric background. The writing just flowed and the characters soon had me in their spell. The details of the era seemed authentic and further enhanced my reading experience. Not only has Nunn mastered the art of bringing history to life, but she also achieved what many writers struggle with – to make each of her two timelines equally interesting. I really look forward to reading more from this author in future!

 

  

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE TAKEAWAY MEN by Meryl Ain

 Title: THE TAKEAWAY MEN

Author:  Meryl Ain

Publisher:  Spark Press

Read: December 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

With the cloud of the Holocaust still looming over them, twin sisters Bronka and Johanna Lubinski and their parents arrive in the US from a Displaced Persons Camp. In the years after World War II, they experience the difficulties of adjusting to American culture as well as the burgeoning fear of the Cold War. Years later, the discovery of a former Nazi hiding in their community brings the Holocaust out of the shadows. As the girls get older, they start to wonder about their parents’ pasts, and they begin to demand answers. But it soon becomes clear that those memories will be more difficult and painful to uncover than they could have anticipated. Poignant and haunting, The Takeaway Men explores the impact of immigration, identity, prejudice, secrets, and lies on parents and children in mid-twentieth-century America.

What attracted me to this book:

 

Not many HF novels deal with the immediate aftermath of WW2, especially for immigrants, so I was immediately intrigued by this book!

 

My musings:

 

The Lubinski family arrive in the US from a Polish displaced persons’ camp, each carrying their own scars. Aaron grapples with the loss of his entire family to the Nazi death camps. Judy, his wife, has a secret of her own she has not told anyone about. And whilst the twins Bronka and Johanna were born after the war, they are scarred by their father’s dark moods and post traumatic stress responses. The book follows the family as they adapt to their new life in a foreign country. As kids are apt to do, the girls settle in quickly whilst the parents – especially Aaron – find it a lot more difficult to leave the past behind.

 

With a keen eye for detail and subtle nuances, Ain’s exploration of Jewish life in the US in the aftermath of WW2 was both interesting as touching. It made me reflect on many of the themes it touched on, such as the after-effects of trauma, even on the next generation, who have only experienced the horror second-hand, through stories and their parents’ reaction to situations. It was interesting to see how many holocaust survivors wanted to shield their children from the horror they had endured by keeping their pasts hidden, which ultimately led to division and referred trauma, whilst others were open about discussing the past.

 

I think I would have become more immersed in the novel if it had focused on the Lubinskis rather than including many side characters, which led to some emotional detachment on my part. And whilst it was interesting to see the interconnection of the different families, I was never quite as invested in those chapters as I was in the twins’. However, THE TAKEAWAY MEN made me reflect on many of my encounters with holocaust survivors through my work, which mirrored some of the actions and feelings of different characters in the book.

 

 

Summary:

 

All in all, THE TAKEAWAY MEN was an interesting and touching character study of Jewish immigrant life in the US after WW2, and I appreciated the topics the author highlighted in her story, especially the after-effects of trauma on future generations. 

 

 

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Spark Press  for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE RINGMASTER'S DAUGHTER by Carly Schabowski

Title: THE RINGMASTER'S DAUGHTER

Author:  Carly Schabowski
Read: June 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

Paris, 1940. Twenty-year-old Michel Bonnet lives on the edge of the law, finding work where he can breaking in horses on the outskirts of the city. But when the Nazis invade, Michel takes refuge as a stowaway on a rickety train bound for the rural south. It’s a journey that will change his life forever.

The train is property of Le Cirque Neumann – a travelling circus owned by the troubled and irritable showman Werner Neumann. Neumann offers Michel a job caring for the company’s horses – a lucky break, but with an unusual condition attached. Michel must keep to himself and never speak of what he sees behind the glittering curtain of the big top.

But as Michel finds himself pulled into the strange and wondrous world of the great spectacular it becomes more difficult to keep his promise. Why does the man with the performing monkey never speak, and the sword swallower turn his face away? Who are the silent, shadowy figures who flit like moths between the wagons when the sun is down? It’s clear that Neumann is keeping his performers hidden away… but why? And how can Michel win the love of the beautiful and exotic trapeze artist Frieda – the graceful, green-eyed star of Neuman’s spectacular – when he’s been forbidden to even meet her gaze?

What attracted me to this book:

Show me a child who has never dreamed of running away to the circus! Maybe this is why I always feel drawn to books with circus settings, and the combination of a WWII story and a travelling circus immediately got my attention.

My musings:

Michel is a young man living in Paris in 1940 working as a horsetrainer when the imminent invasion of the city by Nazi troops tilts his world upside down. After losing his job, and persuaded by his best friend and mentor to leave the city, he finds himself a stowaway on a train transporting a travelling circus.

From here on, Michel’s life becomes very much enmeshed with that of the various circus performers as the war slowly closes in on them. Based on a true story, the premise quickly drew me in and I enjoyed the cast of colourful circus characters who soon become Michel’s companions and friends. However, to be totally honest, as the story progressed I found myself wanting more: more circus atmosphere, more tension, more emotion. There is a little hint of all of this, but it never fully came to fruition for me. I wanted the sights, the sounds and the smells of the circus but only got little glimpses of these. It also didn’t help that the title gives away one of the major mysteries the book revolves around, and once you start reading you will see what I mean. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to rating this book any higher was my lack of emotional involvement, even though I found the story pleasant enough reading. Pleasant, but just lacking that special something that would make it stay in my mind for any longer than after the last page had been turned.

Summary:

All in all, THE RINGMASTER’S DAUGHTER will appeal to readers who are looking for a lighter WWII read that contains a little bit of everything: a bit of romance, a bit of tragedy, a tiny bit of mystery all wrapped in a circus setting. Those readers looking for a deeper, more hard hitting story delving into the psyche of a diverse group of refugees and societal misfits banded together in the troupe of a travelling circus during wartime may find the story lacking in depth, and being fairly predictable. However, it made for good escapist reading, so may be just the right choice for you in these troubled times.

 Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY by Kelly Rimmer

Title: THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY

Author: Kelly Rimmer
Read: March 2020

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

"War breaks us down to nothing more than our most selfish will to survive - but when we rise above that instinct, miracles can still happen."

Book Description:

In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century.

Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents’ farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.

Slipping between Nazi-occupied Poland and the frenetic pace of modern life, Kelly Rimmer creates an emotional and finely wrought narrative that weaves together two women’s stories into a tapestry of perseverance, loyalty, love and honor. The Things We Cannot Say is an unshakable reminder of the devastation when truth is silenced…and how it can take a lifetime to find our voice before we learn to trust it.

What attracted me to this book:

I love historical fiction set around WWII and always feel drawn to stories exploring this topic. However, I have found that this time period has become popular lately, and that a lot of books promising wartime premises have been romances in disguise, or have been so sloppily researched that they ended up in disappointment, which is why I have been steering clear of them. I wouldn’t have picked this book up if it hadn’t been a buddy read on Instagram, and I am so glad that I did!

My musings:

THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY uses a popular format to tell a tragic story that played out during war-torn Poland – a dual timeline. In the present, Alice is a young woman whose grandmother has been hospitalised after suffering a stroke, leaving her unable to communicate. Through an electronic device Alice’s autistic son uses to convey messages, her grandmother makes it clear that she is desperate for Alice to go to Poland, the land of her birth, to find people from her past. But who? And why?

In the second timeline, we get to know Alina, who is a young woman growing up in Poland at the start of WWII. She is in love with Tomasz, her childhood friend, whom she is planning to marry and start a family with. But the occupation of Poland by the Nazis sets an end to all Alina’s plans, and she is soon finding herself fighting for her life.

Dual timelines always carry the danger that one is more compelling than the other, but this was not a problem here as I found myself quickly drawn to both women characters and invested in their fates. Rimmer beautifully paints the love between grandmother and granddaughter, setting Alice off on a journey that will unearth family secrets noone has ever spoken about. It also demonstrates the effects of trauma on future generations, especially the children of wartime survivors, who often had no idea of the suffering their parents had endured.

Rimmer skilfully conjures up a war-torn Poland and the sense of urgency and danger many people in Alina’s situation found themselves in. As history marches remorselessly on, the atmosphere of the story became more and more claustrophobic and tense, making me fear for Alina’s life. As Rimmer slowly unravelled the surprise she had in store for her readers and for Alice’s family, some things at the beginning of the story suddenly fell into place.

Summary:

THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY contained everything I love about well-written historical fiction. It is well researched, starring well-drawn characters with deeply emotional connections that soon wove their way into my heart. Each woman bravely faces the obstacles in their lives, buoyed by love for their families. If you have been put off by recent “popcorn-reads” featuring a WWII setting, rest assured that this book has the kind of emotional depth and historical accuracy that made it impossible to put it down. Highly recommended to lovers of the genre and anyone looking for a story featuring courageous female protagonists and family secrets connected to WWII.

Book Review: INHERITANCE OF SECRETS by Sonya Bates

Title: INHERITANCE OF SECRETS

Author: Sonya Bates
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Read: February 2020

Expected publication: 20 April 2020

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

A brutal murder. A wartime promise. A woman on the run.

Juliet's elderly grandparents are killed in their Adelaide home. Who would commit such a heinous crime - and why? The only clue is her grandfather Karl's missing signet ring.

When Juliet's estranged sister, Lily, returns in fear for her life, Juliet suspects something far more sinister than a simple break-in gone wrong. Before Juliet can get any answers, Lily vanishes once more.

What secrets did Karl Weiss have that could have led to his murder? A German soldier who migrated to Adelaide, Juliet knew Karl as a loving grandfather. Is it possible he was a war criminal? While attempting to find out, Juliet uncovers some disturbing secrets from WWII Germany that will put both her and her sister's lives in danger ...

Gripping. Tense. Mysterious. Inheritance of Secrets links the crimes of the present to the secrets of the past and asks how far would you go to keep a promise?

What attracted me to this book:

A present day mystery with family secrets and a connection way back to WWII? Yes, please, I’m in! As soon as I read the description of INHERITANCE OF SECRETS I knew that I had to read it.

My musings:

The story starts with the murder of two elderly people in their Adelaide home. Juliet is heartbroken and unable to understand why anyone would want to harm her grandparents, a couple loved by everyone for their warm personalities and generosity. It’s not long though until she realises that her grandparents had not been victims of a random attack, but had been specifically targeted by ruthless killers, and the reason may lay in her grandfather’s past ....

After hooking me immediately with her opening scenes, Bates slowly unravelled her story with the help of dual timelines – one in the present, as Juliet is trying to come to terms with her grandparents’ death and avoid becoming a target herself; and her grandfather’s experiences during WWII that ultimately brought him into the path of the killer. Dual timelines can sometimes be problematic, but Bates strikes a perfect balance here, with the past and present day storylines being equally as compelling as each other. I immediately felt for Juliet, who is not only trying to come to terms with her beloved grandparents’ brutal death, but also finds out that her sister may be somehow involved, her mother is not contactable and her lover is more concerned with his work than supporting her through her grief.

Part mystery, part historical fiction, part fast-paced thriller, INHERITANCE OF SECRETS had something for everyone. I found the history of post-war Australia and the immigrants’ plight to settle into a new life as interesting as the wartime events that ultimately lead to Karl’s arrival in Australia. Bates draws both her setting as well as her characters vividly, and I really enjoyed her writing style. As the granddaughter of a man who was a soldier in WWII on the Russian front, and a prisoner of war for many years later, I related to the theme of secrets that are never revealed because the memories are too painful – even to close family.

Summary:

Even if you are not usually a fan of historical fiction, the thriller and suspense component in Bates’ novel will appeal to a wide range of readers across multiple genres. Despite some suspension of disbelief being required in parts, I really enjoyed this very readable novel spanning two different timeframes from WWII to the present,  and look forward to reading more from this author in future.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE COLLABORATOR by Diane Armstrong

Title: THE COLLABORATOR

Author: Diane Armstrong
Publisher: Harlequin Australia
Read: August 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

It is 1944 in Budapest and the Germans have invaded. Jewish journalist Miklos Nagy risks his life and confronts the dreaded Adolf Eichmann in an attempt save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the death camps. But no one could have foreseen the consequences...

It is 2005 in Sydney, and Annika Barnett sets out on a journey that takes her to Budapest and Tel Aviv to discover the truth about the mysterious man who rescued her grandmother in 1944.

By the time her odyssey is over, history has been turned on its head, past and present collide, and the secret that has poisoned the lives of three generations is finally revealed in a shocking climax that holds the key to their redemption.

My musings:

I can never resist a good story set during WWII, especially one that explores lesser known historical events during that dark time in history. Diane Armstrong’s latest book, THE COLLABORATOR, falls firmly into that category. Inspired by real happenings  and people, her captivating story focuses on the fate of 1500 Hungarian Jews who were saved from certain death in German concentration camps by the actions of one man – who will later have to stand trial for being a Nazi collaborator. Hero or traitor? How can one and the same action be considered to be both, depending on how you look at it?

It was immediately obvious that Armstrong has done A LOT of research into her topic, as her story is peppered with facts and historical details that opened my eyes to political events that had somehow slipped under the radar for me. If history lessons had been as captivating as this book, I would certainly have known more about the fate of the many Jewish people who managed to escape the Nazi death camps and started their new lives in Israel, facing a whole new set of challenges after the war was over. Armstrong seamlessly weaves historical fact with fiction, with characters that practically leap off the pages, take the reader by the hand and draw them into their world. I feel like I learned so much by reading this story!

Narrated in a dual timeline format, one part of the story is being told through the eyes of Annika, an Australian journalist trying to find out the truth about Miklos Nagy, the man who allegedly saved her grandmother’s life together with 1500 other Jews during the war. Since her grandmother remains tight-lipped about the subject, Annika decides to go to Hungary where her grandmother was living during the war. She thus embarks on a journey that will take her from Hungary to Israel, only to uncover a remarkable and heart breaking story of love, courage and betrayal.

The second timeline, set during the war, explores the very events Annika is investigating, and is narrated through the eyes of Miklos Nagy himself, a man who is lauded as hero by some, traitor by others.

Personally, I connected more with Annika’s story, and related to her quest to uncover some truths about her grandmother’s past. I have worked with numerous holocaust survivors, whose families never knew about the terrible tragedies they had suffered, so Annika’s grandmother’s silence on the subject rang true for me, as did her quest for answers. Whilst I found Miklos Nagy’s chapters fascinating and eye opening, they also felt a bit more detached and at times heavy with historical facts. This is not a criticism, merely a caution to readers to allow time to digest the story rather than expecting a quick entertaining read. I found myself looking up facts about Hungary and the fate of its Jewish population because I felt I needed to understand the context more – and I am grateful to have learned from the story as well as appreciating the armchair time travel.

Summary:

All in all, THE COLLABORATOR was a well-researched, interesting and thought provoking novel based on real life persons and events that explored a chapter of WWII history not often touched upon in historical fiction. I found it relevant and educational as well as deeply moving, and recommend it to all lovers of the genre.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE LOVE THAT I HAVE by James Moloney

Title: The Love That I Have

Author: James Moloney
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Read: May 2018

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

"The dead should know they are loved."

Book Description:

Margot Baumann has left school to take up her sister's job in the mailroom of a large prison. But this is Germany in 1944, and the prison is Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin.

Margot is shielded from the camp's brutality as she has no contact with prisoners. But she does handle their mail and, when given a cigarette lighter and told to burn the letters, she is horrified by the callous act she must carry out with her own hands. This is especially painful since her brother was taken prisoner at Stalingrad and her family has had no letters from him. So Margot steals a few letters, intending to send them in secret, only to find herself drawn to their heart-rending words of hope, of despair, and of love.

This is how Margot comes to know Dieter Kleinschmidt - through the beauty and the passion of his letters to his girlfriend. And since his girlfriend is also named Margot, it is like reading love letters written for her.

My musings: 

Apart from my usual preferred genre of mystery / suspense, I have a weakness for historical novels set during WW2 and can never resist a new angle on this dark chapter in human history. When I saw that James Moloney’s new novel, The Love That I Have, was being compared with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which is one of my all-time favourite novels, I knew I had to read it!

It is perhaps no surprise that Moloney, a successful children’s author, would choose a sweet and naive sixteen-year-old girl as his main protagonist in a story of hope and love. Don’t we all remember that turbulent time in our teens, on the cusp of adulthood, when all of life still lay ahead of us and anything was possible? Even in the darkest of times, teenage girls will still swoon over handsome young men and dream of meeting their one true love, their happily-ever-after, even if the world around them is rapidly disintegrating.

At sixteen, Margot Baumann is an innocent when it comes to love, and with youthful optimism she believes that it will always triumph over adversity. I really enjoyed seeing how the foundations of the political views she has been indoctrinated with under Hitler’s reign slowly crumble when she is being confronted with those purest of human emotions – the will to survive and love. Love expressed in the words of Konzentrationslager prisoners, whose letters she secretly reads in the camp’s mail room. Letters that will never make it to their intended recipients, because Margot, the camp’s new mail clerk, has been tasked with burning them. Her moral dilemma is very well explored here – on one hand she has been told that Jews are not really human, but on the other hand she can see that their letters prove otherwise. These are people just like her brother, who is imprisoned in a POW camp in Russia, writing home to their loved ones, voicing their hope of seeing them again. One of the letters that fall into Margot’s hands is from a political prisoner called Dieter Kleinschmidt, expressing his love and longing for his girlfriend, whose name coincidentally is also Margot. I could easily imagine that a young naive girl could fall in love with a person’s letters – and that she would act impulsively to “save” the young man who has captured her heart with his writing. I really liked Margot – she was sweet and innocent and courageous.

My own sixteen-year-old self would have been totally enamoured by this story and the idea of pure love through the written word, the meeting of two souls at a time when death was only ever a heartbeat away. However, my old cynical self was not so easily swayed, pointing out the plot holes and the implausibility of some of Margot’s actions. I was reading this book like a split personality, the little angel on one shoulder whispering: “How sweet, how beautiful!” Whilst the little devil on the other sneered disdainfully: “This would never work – this could never happen!” This novel is not marketed as a YA novel, although I thought that it would probably work better for a less cynical, younger audience than the seen-it-all jaded reader that I am. Perhaps there is a reason I prefer dark and sinister murder mysteries! So, whilst parts of the story captured my heart and offered a fresh new angle to an episode in history that has featured in thousands of books, there was a lot of suspension of disbelief necessary for me to go along with parts of the plot.

Summary:

In summary, The Love That I Have offers a unique angle to one of the darkest chapters of human history, with a courageous and innocent heroine that reinforces the message that love can indeed triumph over hate and adversity. With a young teenage cast and a rich historical setting, it will appeal to a younger audience or lovers of the genre who are looking for a different approach to your typical holocaust novel in which the “good” and the “bad” are clearly defined. However, readers who find it difficult to suspend disbelief may struggle with certain parts of this story.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE LOST FAMILY by Jenna Blum

Title: The Lost Family

Author: Jenna Blum
Publisher: Harper Books
Read: May 2018

Expected publication: 5 June 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/4

Book Description:

In 1965 Manhattan, patrons flock to Masha’s to savor its brisket bourguignon and impeccable service and to admire its dashing owner and head chef Peter Rashkin. With his movie-star good looks and tragic past, Peter, a survivor of Auschwitz, is the most eligible bachelor in town. But Peter does not care for the parade of eligible women who come to the restaurant hoping to catch his eye. He has resigned himself to a solitary life. Running Masha’s consumes him, as does his terrible guilt over surviving the horrors of the Nazi death camp while his wife, Masha—the restaurant’s namesake—and two young daughters perished.

Then exquisitely beautiful June Bouquet, an up-and-coming young model, appears at the restaurant, piercing Peter’s guard. Though she is twenty years his junior, the two begin a passionate, whirlwind courtship. When June unexpectedly becomes pregnant, Peter proposes, believing that beginning a new family with the woman he loves will allow him to let go of the horror of the past. But over the next twenty years, the indelible sadness of those memories will overshadow Peter, June, and their daughter Elsbeth, transforming them in shocking, heartbreaking, and unexpected ways.

Jenna Blum artfully brings to the page a husband devastated by a grief he cannot name, a frustrated wife struggling to compete with a ghost she cannot banish, and a daughter sensitive to the pain of both her own family and another lost before she was born. Spanning three cinematic decades, The Lost Family is a charming, funny, and elegantly bittersweet study of the repercussions of loss and love. 

My musings:

Years ago, in one of my previous jobs, I had the privilege to meet many holocaust survivors who shared their heartbreaking stories of survival and new beginnings in other countries far from their home. Although I greatly admired their resilience and the human survival spirit, and their capacity to forgive and start over, I also realised that there was often a huge price to pay for the trauma they had endured. One was survivor’s guilt, of having escaped the death camps when so many of their family and friends were not able to. Although they had moved on, married and had children in their new country, many said that they were not able to share their experiences with those nearest and dearest to them, and that the past remained an ever present ghost in their lives, which their families could not understand. This lasting effect of trauma is the very thing Blum explores in her latest novel, The Lost Family. Peter Rashkin, a German Jew who has managed to escape the death camps and has fled to America to start a new life, is still haunted by the death of his wife and their small twin daughters during the war. When he meets the vivacious, beautiful and innocent model June Bouquet, he thinks that she will be his salvation, the woman who will rescue him from his grief and allow him to move on. But Peter’s trauma is a heavy burden, one that will threaten to destroy his marriage and affect his daughter Elsbeth, who grows up in the shadow of the ghosts of her half-sisters, even though Peter will never talk about them.

Blum’s novel is told in three distinctive parts. Part one is told from Peter’s POV, as he is trying to make a new start in America, working in his restaurant Masha’s in New York. It is there that he first meets and falls in love with June, whose youth and happiness seems to be the perfect cure for his grief. June, who has grown up without a father, is drawn to the much older and mysterious Peter, basking in his adoration. When a shocked June first finds out about Masha’s and the twins’ deaths and suggests that Peter see a therapist to talk about his trauma, he replies: “Why would I need an analyst? I am happy now. I have you.” Part two is set ten years later as an unhappy June reflects on motherhood, marriage and her lost dreams, trying to find a way out of her lonely life. The last part, another decade on, tells about sixteen-year-old Elsbeth, who is propelled into adulthood through a chance encounter. For me, the first part of the novel was definitely my favourite. I loved the atmospheric setting and the descriptions of the magical food creations Peter serves up in his restaurant, named after his dead wife. As he first meets June and falls in love, for the first time hoping that the future will bring a new beginning, I so much hoped that he would be able to find happiness.

The latter two thirds of the book are a lot more difficult to read, as they deal with the fall-out of Peter’s past on the other family members, who will never be able to grasp the full extent of the trauma but are nonetheless deeply affected by it. As the granddaughter of a POW I recognised the signs of PTSD in Peter, which also scarred my grandfather, and therefore his children, including my mother. Blum paints an insightful and realistic picture of a marriage where both partners are trying to find salvation in each other to escape the past, but which ends up drowning them. It is, at times, unspeakably sad and tragic to read. There were a few things left unanswered that stayed in my mind long after I finished reading, and I realised how deeply this story had troubled me.

 Summary:

In summary, Blum’s novel The Lost Family is an insightful portrayal of a family shaped by loss and grief. With its atmospheric setting and believable characters, it effortlessly propelled me into a New York of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, as each of the family members drift away from each other, flotsam of a war that left a heavy burden of grief to carry. This is a topic not often explored in novels, and although it left me feeling unspeakably sad, it was a poignant reminder of the burden of the past impacting on our relationships and shaping future generations. I look forward to reading more from this author in future.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE TREE HOUSE by Glenn Haybittle

Title: The Tree House

Author: Glenn Haybittle
Publisher: Cheyne Walk
Read: December 2017

Expected publication: 11 January 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

It takes more courage than most people have not to submit to the pressure to conform.

Book Description:

Max and Ada, ten-year-old neighbours, are engrossed in composing a book of spells in a tree house in Paris when the Nazis arrive to occupy the city. Max, the child of a rape and abandoned by his mother, is in foster care; Ada is Jewish.

Almost fifty years later Max, the black sheep of the family, summons his grandson to tell him the story of those years in Paris and reveal a guilty secret that has eaten away at him. His mind is now set on digging up the past and he wants Mark to accompany him across the English Channel. His dying wish is to shed light on the two missing women in his life: Ada and his mother. Mark though is struggling with his own existential crisis. There is a missing woman in his life too.

A deftly accomplished tightrope act of pathos and humour, The Tree House is a bewitching novel of loss and restitution, heritage and the hereafter.

My musings:

I’ve read quite a few WWII books this year, but The Tree House was very different from the rest. Told from the perspectives of a grandfather and his grandson, this is a bittersweet tale of guilt and looking for redemption. Max summons his grandson to reflect on his perceived betrayal of the love of his life, Ada, in Paris during WWII, when they were both just children. He is still tortured by his last cruel and thoughtless words to his best friend before she got captured by Nazi soldiers and shipped off to a death camp, never to be seen again. Haunted by the ghost of his friend and images of a mother who abandoned him as a child, Max’s memories take on an almost surreal, dreamlike character, like the books of spells Ada and Max created in their short time together.

His grandson Mark is battling demons all of his own, reflecting on the events that lead to the breakdown of his relationship to dancer Katie, who he still can’t get out of his mind.  As the two men reconnect after years apart and confide in each other, both offer one another a strange kind of solace from their regrets. And whilst it is too late for Max to undo the past, there may still be time for Mark to make amends.

The Tree House is a tale of two men connected by blood and past regrets. Whilst the holocaust plays only a small part in the story, and the horrors of war are only ever hinted at through the eyes of an innocent child, the story explores how it has shaped Max and his life from the time Ada was taken. I enjoyed how the author connects the past and present through the relationship between the two men, one old and one young, but both haunted by their own demons. Only in each other can they find solace and a strange kind of healing. The grandfather-grandson relationship is beautifully portrayed and made this a reflective and somewhat wistful read for me. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Cheyne Walk for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: THE ALICE NETWORK by Kate Quinn

Title: The Alice Network

Author: Kate Quinn
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
Read: November 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

We are flowers who flourish in evil.

Book Description:

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the "Queen of Spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth ...no matter where it leads.

My musings:

Who doesn’t like a good suspenseful spy story, especially one that’s based on real historical figures? It was a no-brainer that I absolutely had to read The Alice Network after discovering it is centred around the true story of a spy network of women based in the German occupied town of Lille in France during WWI.

Quinn uses a dual timeline format to connect her two main characters. One, set in 1915, tells the story of Evelyn (“Eve”) Gardiner, a plucky young British girl who joins the war effort as a female spy to gather intelligence in German occupied France. There she becomes part of the famous Alice Network, led by the true historical figure of Louise de Bettignies, a well-known French secret agent during WWI (also known under her pseudonym Alice Dubois). The other, set in 1947, features young Charlotte St Clair (“Charlie”), a disgraced privileged American girl, who travels to France to track down her beloved cousin Rose who has been missing since the war. As the two women’s paths intersect, we get to find out more about Eve’s history as a secret agent, which has left her a broken woman, and witness Charlie’s coming of age as she sets out on her quest.

I absolutely loved Eve’s story and found the details about the Alice Network and its secret agents utterly fascinating, especially the author’s postscript detailing the true historical events the story is based on. How courageous were these women! And whilst Eve is a fictional character, she blended in well with her “real-life” companions – and who knows, there may have been a similar background to the “real” Marguerite Quinn used as inspiration for her character. Even the older Eve rang true for me, damaged and broken as she was from her wartime experiences. I could imagine that life after the war would not have been easy for those courageous women who managed to survive, but had seen and done unimaginable things for their country. Louise must have been one amazing lady, I ended up reading up on her on the web after finishing this book and would love to read a whole book devoted to her!

Whilst I admire the author for conjuring up a link between her two female protagonist that spans both World Wars, sadly Charlie’s story did not hold the same interest for me as Eve’s, and there were times when I struggled to keep my focus during Charlie’s chapters. Whilst Eve seemed to be able to step out of the pages as real as her historical counterparts, Charlie seemed a bit fake to me, her speech more befitting a 21^st century teenager than a girl brought up in the 1940’s. Whilst I realise this is fiction, some of the little inaccuracies still niggled at me, and distracted from Eve’s chapters, and I found myself skipping a lot of Charlie’s story to get back to Eve’s. Unfortunately Charlie’s story was very loooong, and contained a somewhat clichéd romance on top of it all - ugh! A bit of editing may have done wonders here, as there were some fascinating parts that were worth exploring, such as the story of the massacre that wiped out an entire French village during WWII. I also enjoyed the premise of seeing Eve in her older age, trying to lay her demons to rest, and able to help young Charlie in her quest. My issues were just with the “fillers” in Charlie’s story, the parts that didn’t add much to the overall plot but dragged the book out and made me impatient to get back to Eve’s story.

Summary:

All in all, The Alice Network was an captivating and original story centered around a real female spy network during WWI that held my interest and kept me eagerly turning the pages for more. Whilst Charlie’s chapters did not intrigue me nearly as much, other readers may enjoy her chapters (including the romance) a lot more than I did. If you are a history buff and love to read books set during either of the world wars, this one is definitely worth picking up for the historical detail it contains and the unique spin on a story that isn’t told nearly as often as it deserves to be. 

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Australia

 for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.