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The German Child by Catherine Hokin

Jan28

Horrendous & Heart-Breaking

The German Child by Catherine Hokin is a powerful dual timeline novel that completely captivated me. It is horrendous, heart breaking and powerful.

The action is set during World War II in Berlin and also in 1979/1980 America. We see the dreadful exploits of the Angel of Death in Germany during the war, continue afterwards. Far from seeing what was done as war crimes, the Angel of Death is proud of her lifetime of horrendous crimes.

We see the power wielded as one chooses who lives and who dies, who is deemed worthy and who isn’t. First it was the Jewish people during World War II, then it was the African Americans in Alabama as the white supremacists supported the horrendous acts of prejudice and inequality.

The Lebensborn program of the Nazis robbed families of children, and children of their mothers. Blonde haired, blue-eyed boys were selected for the Nazis Fatherland. Girls were not valued so highly, being viewed only as good for breeding boys. The army of drab brown-uniformed sisters were selected to blend in as they stole children. They were meant to be unmemorable. The novel is grounded in fact as the brown sisters actually existed.

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Full Circle by Vered Neta

Jan21

Simply Marvellous

Full Circle by Vered Neta is a powerful historical dual timeline novel that totally consumed me.

The action alternates between 1989 America and Prague during the 1960’s. The two time periods are linked by a family as we witness strained mother-daughter relationships in both time periods. Daughters feel trapped and smothered by their mother’s love, believing their mothers are timid and fearful – nothing could be further from the truth! Both mothers are incredibly brave and resourceful. They both keep silent about their pasts and are therefore misunderstood by their daughters. The mother in the 1960’s is an Auschwitz survivor. “Her way of fighting the Nazis was making sure she would stay alive.” This shows real determination – and a lot of luck. Life was lived on a knife-edge all the time.

Life in Prague in the 1960’s was lived behind the Iron Curtain. The Soviets were in control. There were rules and regulations to be obeyed. “The Gulags are filled with the bodies of people who thought differently.” To be in opposition to Communism could spell a death sentence. People had to learn ways to be able to read banned books and to go against the state.

Religion was dead. Communism reigned. For a mother in the 1960’s “her God died in Auschwitz with the rest of her family.” This belief meant that a daughter’s Jewish heritage was not celebrated. She had to find out about her roots by being resourceful and seeking out a rabbi who would educate her. This contrasts sharply with America where people could worship and celebrate their Jewish heritage.

Behind the Iron Curtain trust was in short supply. “She knew now that eyes and ears were everywhere.” To make an enemy of the state would mean blacklisting for life – or worse.

The late 1960’s saw a student uprising in Prague. As a teen in the 1970’s I had seen footage of a student who set fire to themselves in Wenceslas Square – but to read about it within the book was still shocking. People died. The world looked on.

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Hidden Fires by Sairish Hussain

Jan18

Tragic & Heartbreaking

Hidden Fires by Sairish Hussain is a powerful and absolutely heart-breaking novel that will mess with your emotions. It will make you angry as you witness the terrible consequences of man’s inhumanity to man, whilst simultaneously making you weep.

The novel is mainly set in Bradford in 2017, just at the time of the Grenfell Tower fire. The main characters are an eighty year old grandfather and his sixteen year old granddaughter. They are similar but different as both try to deal with their problems alone, whilst pretending all is well. “We’ve drifted away into our own corners of ourselves.” For the granddaughter, it is the bullies at school. For the grandfather it is guilt and loss that has followed him down seventy years after the dreadful events of partition in 1947 India and Pakistan.

The grandfather is not the only male, his age hiding guilty secrets connected with partition. Events haunted a generation. The reader is horrified and saddened for what theses young boys saw in 1947 – events, so shocking, they never left them. “We had to run for our lives from people who looked just like us, spoke like us, lived beside us.”

As her mother is ill and her father is a workaholic, the granddaughter is used to being alone. Her father is a social worker who helps other people’s kids but misses the trauma in his own daughter. “He’s too busy.”

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The Forgotten Bookshop In Paris by Daisy Wood

Jan17

Powerful Dual Timeline

The Forgotten Bookshop In Paris by Daisy Wood is a fabulous dual timeline novel that I just could not put down.

The story is set in present day and during World War II in Paris. The time periods are linked as a granddaughter researches her late grandmother’s life during the war. She also desires to open up the bookshop that she sees in her grandmother’s painting.

The bookshop is a time capsule, hiding secrets amid the dust and the shelves. It needs to be awakened and lives remembered.

We see the bravery of some during World War II. While many sat idly by, a few brave souls risked their lives in order to save and hide others. There were pockets of mutual respect to be found in some German hearts, as characters bond over books. We see a character who lays down his life in order to save the innocents.

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