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An Orphan’s Christmas by Katie Flynn

Dec19

Growing Through The War Years

An Orphan’s Christmas by Katie Flynn is an historical novel that I read in just one sitting.

The action begins in 1936 as we follow the lead character through the orphanage to a wooden dwelling and through the war years.

Molly is a plucky girl. It is her personality and her strength of character that get her through some very tough circumstances from the age of eleven when we first meet her.

The orphanage is stifling. It is a place of ‘less than’ with little heating and little to eat. An older girl bullies Molly, forcing her to make choices she did not anticipate.

Bonds formed in childhood persist into adulthood until the rose-tinted spectacles are removed.

A character who is on the sidelines proves to be more loyal than one who takes centre stage.

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When The World Went Silent by Ellie Midwood

Dec6

Pandora’s Box

When The World Went Silent by Ellie Midwood is a powerful, harrowing historical novel that consumed me from the start.

The novel is set in Germany during World War II but opens and closes in Hiroshima in 1946. The whole novel surrounds the topic of the nuclear bomb, as we join and follow a young girl with a passion for physics. Deaf since measles aged five, Mina has immersed herself in science. “The world outside is hostile, filled with prejudice and intolerance. But precise sciences are her sanctuary.”

Following the Nazis rise to power, Mina was excluded from school and seen as ‘undesirable’, and has been home-schooled. Her superior talent within nuclear physics has brought her to the attention of the Nazis at the highest level. Mina is sent to Berlin to work on the development of the nuclear bomb but she is determined to never make a bomb. She wants to heal not harm. “We’ll all have to face the choices we made today.”

Mina has a conscience, a heart and much courage. “The courage of those who dare to stand against the darkness.” As a young girl, she stood up for the marginalized except for one time when she ran, and this haunts her dreams. “Still has nightmares… she was just a young girl whose only fault was walking away when she should have stayed.” The guilt remains even though she knows there is nothing she could have done. Later she is told “Sometimes running away is the only logical thing to do.”

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The Lightmaker Of Auschwitz by Nepthali Brezniak

Nov12

Powerful & Harrowing

The Lightmaker Of Auschwitz by Nepthali Brezniak is a powerful true account of the author’s father’s experiences during World War II.

The book has been written “to remember and not to forget” all those who lived and died during the Holocaust.

The author’s father was a Polish Jew. His wartime story is harrowing. We see the best and the worst of humanity. To survive was often a matter of luck.

Nazi-occupied Europe was a terrible place to be. The author’s father was in ghettos, several concentration camps and involved in a death march in 1945 during a terribly cold winter. He needed to have his wits about him, as well as luck, in order to survive. He also had a friend which gave him a reason to survive too. This book tells his story and also that of countless others.

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The Last Agent In Paris by Sharon Maas

Nov8

So Brave

The Last Agent In Paris by Sharon Maas is a powerful, historical novel that I read in just two sittings, pausing only to sleep.

This is the story of Noor Inayat Khan. As a historian I knew the bare bones of her story but this book puts flesh on those bones.

Noor Inayat Khan was the first female wireless operator in France in World War II. The average life expectancy for wireless operators in France was just six weeks. She was small in stature but hugely brave and courageous. Her lips were forever sealed as her fate was marked.

We hear of Noor Inayat Khan’s life story from her birth in Russia in 1914 right up to her ending.

Her character was largely shaped by her father, with whom she had a close relationship. “Some people are just mean, you can’t change them… You’re the only person you can really change.” Wise words from her father. Noor Inayat Khan lived by these words as she worked on her own character. She was by nature a pacifist so war did not come easily. As the Nazis spread their lies, she believed “the pen is mightier than the sword… Peace starts in the home with children. We must nourish the minds of children.”

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