The Swimmer Of Auschwitz by Renaud Leblond

Mar5

Inspiring

The Swimmer Of Auschwitz by Renaud Leblond is the true story of Olympic swimmer Alfred Nakache who survived Auschwitz.

Alfred Nakache was born in Constantine. It was a cosmopolitan city. “Muslims, Jews, Catholics, all are first and foremost citizens of Constantine.”

As a child he was afraid of water. He overcame this fear and was in the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

The book alternates the time before Auschwitz and while he was in Auschwitz. He was a brave man who inspired others. “Yes to life… Yes to continue believing in it, despite everything.” He always shared what little he had with others. He helped to keep men going. They, in turn, copied him by sharing. “One of us needed to stay alive to one day report what goes on here.” [In Auschwitz].

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The Vanished Girl by Kathleen McGurl

Mar3

Layers

The Vanished Girl by Kathleen McGurl is a powerful and heartbreaking dual timeline novel that gripped me from the start.

The action is set in the summer of 1976 and in 2024. For those of us of a certain age, we remember the summer of ’76 as being glorious – long, hot days. For the characters they were, eight, twelve, and nearly fourteen-years-old. Theirs was a summer of freedom. “We were giddy with freedom and endless possibilities. Friends, a picnic, our bikes… We could go anywhere.” The reader ‘feels’ the freedom and remembers their own childhood in the summer of ’76. Days of adventures with friends, no phones to distract. The summer stretched out endlessly, creating bonds and happy memories until – the girl vanished.

Nearly fifty years later, the friends are re-united. “Inside, I’m still that kid.” Old bonds re-attach as the years fall away. Feelings of guilt return as everyone wonders if they could have done more.

The intervening years have seen a life being plied with guilt upon guilt. A life spiralled downwards. Returning to her childhood village, a character hopes she will heal.

Re-connection with childhood friends creates the original strong bonds.

The modern reader is horrified at the attitudes to those with mental health issues in 1976. They are shunned at best, persecuted at worst – by the adults, who hunt in packs. It is shameful. Only the children see the kind, gentle heart that beats beneath the skin of a nineteen-year-old man.

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Operation Rhino by Lauren St John

Mar3

Kindness & Care

Operation Rhino by Lauren St John is a powerful contemporary children’s novel. It is the sixth book in The White Giraffe series but can be read as a stand-alone. I recommend reading the books in numerical order for character progression and timeline continuity. The books are suitable for the over eights. Whatever your age, this series will entertain.

Each book has highlighted an endangered species. As you can tell from the title, it is the turn of the Rhino. They have been hunted to near extinction by grasping, greedy and ill-informed poachers who want the rhino horn.

We join eleven-year-olds Martine and Ben once more, as they help to rescue several rhinos.

Martine meets her favourite band and is briefly starstruck, leading to a lapse in judgment which haunts her. The result is a very guilty conscience and her special gift is hidden. She needs to release the guilt and believe in herself again.

We see the bonds formed between different animal species. “Animals don’t see difference as a negative thing. All they care about is kindness.” Watching a baby rhino bond with an energetic billy goat is priceless.

The reader is treated to the beauty of the African landscape, which contrasts with the potential danger. “The game reserve can be a deadly dangerous place. It’s also the most beautiful place on earth.”

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The Strawberry House by Rachel Burton

Mar3

Of Love & Life, Friends & Family

The Strawberry House by Rachel Burton is a powerful historical novel set over two time periods. It has its’ roots in facts as we hear about William Morris and the pre-Raphaelite artists. The action is set in 1938 and 1952. These alternate.

The summer of 1938 is a defining and devastating summer. Lives would be altered forever. No one would ever be the same again as a tragic accident affects all those involved.

It began as a summer of promise but ended as a summer of tragedy.

It was a summer where new friendships were forged. Lives took new trajectories as characters made decisions about their futures.

Between the two time periods was World War II. Here lives were changed again – sometimes forever lost.

1938 saw women’s lives on the edge of change. Old fashioned paternalistic attitudes had squashed women but with the war, came freedom. A female character believes “If women can crack enemy code…we can do anything we… want.”

In contrast we hear the thoughts of a male character after the war: “Go home… Marry a nice man, have some children, be happy.” “Because that was all women were good for again now that the war was over.” A male dominated society wanted to put women back in a clearly labelled box: ‘family.’

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