Archive | November 2021

The Return by Anita Frank

Nov10

A Silent Love

The Return by Anita Frank is a marvellous historical novel that enthralled me from the start.

The story alternates between 1939 and 1945, through the voices of the two main characters. The action is mainly set in the Berkshire countryside.

Farming is a hard way of life. We witness the strength of characters who have to adapt and change as war approaches and as it subsequently ends.

Women of strength and character keep the home front going as they pull together to feed the nation.

As with many small communities, there is a lord of the manor. We witness the arrogance of some of the privileged as they leave destruction behind. They are in complete contrast to the characters who do not have worldly goods but have huge hearts.

Anita Frank has cleverly constructed her novel. As it opens, we hear a character running from something. We hear the hints and try to guess the reason before it is later revealed. I failed to correctly guess, again!

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The Silent Stars Go By by Sally Nicholls

Nov9

A Bygone Era

The Silent Stars Go By by Sally Nicholls is a charming historical YA novel that enchanted me from the start.

The novel is set in 1919 as Britain is returning to normal after World War I. The reader drops in on a country vicarage and follows the family as Christmas approaches. It has been years since they all celebrated together.

War affects lives. Soldiers returned, some with visible scars, others were hidden. It is easy to see why some could not settle back into civilian life. A character cannot hold a job down as part of his mind still remains at the Front.

The main theme of the novel is that of love. We see a young love that war interrupted and we see the love of mothers. Losing a child creates a gap that nothing can ever fill.

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The Winds Of Homecoming by Christopher Goodchild

Nov9

All Shall Be Well

The Winds Of Homecoming by Christopher Goodchild is a powerful book of fifty devotions based on the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke.

Christopher Goodchild has autism, undiagnosed until 2007, all his life he has been walking through loss and loneliness. He writes his devotions in the second person of ‘you’ as if he is talking to himself. This draws the reader in as we ‘feel’ as if the author is talking personally to us.

Each devotion has great power to speak to the heart and soul. We are all just pilgrims walking through life and “we’re all just walking each other home.”

We all go through hardships. “All your struggles in life can with God’s grace be transformed into something quite extraordinary life affirming and meaningful.” God is “found in the broken places.”  He will take the broken pieces of our lives and make something beautiful.

Scriptures are our anchor in life. We need to know them so that when the storms hit, and they will, we can press into God’s Word.

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A Picture Of Hope by Liz Tolsma

Nov9

Precious In His Eyes

A Picture Of Hope by Liz Tolsma is a marvellous Christian historical novel. It is part of the Heroines Of World War II series but can be read as a stand-alone.

The novel is set in occupied France in 1944. The war is turning but the evil acts continue. The leading characters are an American female war correspondent and a French resistance fighter. At a time when trust is in short supply, the pair are thrown together, trusting in the dark.

Both leading characters have hearts to help the vulnerable – in this case it is children with Downs Syndrome who had no worth in the eyes of the Nazis. The leading characters need to navigate their way to neutral Switzerland.

Hearts are swollen with love as the children put their trust in their rescuers. Lives are put on the line. “If not us, then who?” It reminds me of the story of Esther “for such a time as this.”

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