Archives

The Paris Promise by Suzanne Kelman

Jul8

The Torchbearers

The Paris Promise by Suzanne Kelman is a powerful dual timeline novel that totally consumed me. It is the third book in The Paris Sisters series but can be read as a stand-alone.

The action is set in Paris in 1943 and in England in 2012. We also journey to Brazil in the latter period. The stories are linked by family as a grandmother’s life becomes the focal point of a search.

Life in occupied Paris was hard, and even harder for the Jewish population. A young mother vows to relentlessly search for her Jewish husband. Only the hope of being re-united keeps her going as events push her to the limit.

We see that people did what they did in order to survive. “People made hard choices to survive.” The bravery of a young mother is to be applauded. “We can’t judge the past by our current standings.” The past needs to be viewed with a very different pair of eyes.

A Stradivarius violin links the two timelines as a granddaughter seeks to unite a family with their violin after the Nazis had looted it during the war. What she uncovers is the stuff of nightmares. “The violin wasn’t just an artefact – it was a bridge to her father’s history.”

Brave people of Paris joined the Resistance. “We must join them [Resistance]. We cannot stand idly by while our city is torn apart by hatred and fear.” We learn that even in the darkest of times, beauty can be found. “Amid all the darkness, there was still beauty to be found.”

Continue reading →

The Secret Locket by Catherine Hokin

Jul7

When The World Was Silent

The Secret Locket by Catherine Hokin is a powerful historical novel that I read in just two sittings, pausing only to sleep.

The novel is set in Germany from 1934 to the end of World War II. The action begins in a small village before moving to other locations – Munich, Warsaw, Dachau and more.

Within the village the bully-boy tactics of a powerful man sympathetic to the Nazi party, ruin the lives of the few Jewish residents. We see the power of one man to lie, manipulate, coerce and murder – and the crime of the villagers is to remain silent.

It doesn’t matter that the Jewish family do not practice their faith, their crime is simply being born Jewish. “Nobody would tell her why a faith she rarely practised and rarely thought about had turned overnight into the most important thing about her.”

Catherine Hokin has captured the atmosphere of fear and of liberties being eroded. Far too many fell for Hitler’s lies and had the belief that war was glorious.

Continue reading →

The Bookseller Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman

Jun17

Echoes Down The Years

The Bookseller Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman is a powerful, heart-wrenching dual timeline novel that I loved. It is the second book in The Paris Sisters but can be read as a stand-alone.

The action is mainly set in Paris in 1941 and also in 2011. This is a cosmopolitan read as in 2011 we travel from London to Scotland to Berlin and to Paris. In 1941 we journey between Paris and Berlin.

In present day a granddaughter is trying to piece together her grandfather’s past. She wants to know her heritage – could she really be related to a high-ranking Nazi? Her grandfather has been a recluse tainted by his father’s stance. He has spent a lifetime feeling guilty for the sins of his father.

Books are central to the story. In both time periods, the leading ladies are passionate about books. Novels by Jewish authors were smuggled out of Nazi Germany during World War II or they would have been lost forever. Books and writings tell our stories. “Our personal stories… They connect us to the past and remind us of who we are.” Books are more than just a social commentary on the time. “Books are our testament to having lived, loved and learned.”

We see the courage needed to stand up against the Nazis. “Love can drive us to do the most courageous things, especially in the darkest of times.” We never know what is in our core until it is called out of us.

Continue reading →

The Ruins In Which We Bleed by Steve N Lee

Jun12

Heart-Breaking & Inspiring

The Ruins In Which We Bleed by Steve N Lee is a powerful historical novel that I read in just two sittings, pausing only to sleep. It is the third book in the World War II Historical Fiction series but can be read as a stand-alone.

This is a book that will both horrify and inspire you. This is a book that will impact you and not leave you unchanged – because this is a book that is based on real lives.

What the lead character went through seems unbelievable, it seems impossible – but this impossibility is in fact true.

This is a story about a sixteen-year-old who was brave and resourceful. As you read the tale, it is all too easy to forget that she was just sixteen. She was wise beyond her years.

The story is set in the Warsaw ghetto. We hear about life both before and after the Warsaw uprising. We see the importance of family, and of having someone else to live for. Complete isolation would break a spirit. People needed to have someone to live for. “She smiled at the furry little creature. Even in hell, it appeared that friendships could blossom.”

Resistance came in many forms. “This was her sixteenth notebook… The other fifteen had been buried around the ghetto in tins… She couldn’t fire a gun, but she was deadly with a pencil – this was her way of resisting.” Without written records and personal testimonies, how would the world know? “Resisting isn’t only about picking up a gun but about refusing to simply lie down and die… We are resisting… because we’re still here.” There was a strong spirit to survive. “She’d vowed to survive to tell the world.”

Life in the Warsaw ghetto was horrific. Steve N Lee has written sensitively, whilst still relaying the horrors to the reader. “What kind of a world had they built where it was normal for streets to be littered with the corpses of emaciated children?”

Continue reading →