Author: whatcathyreadnext

#WWWWednesday – 22nd July 2020

whatcathyreadnext12 Comments

WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

A NetGalley ARC, a book for a blog tour and an audiobook

9780008287061The Storm by Amanda Jennings (eARC, courtesy of HQ via NetGalley)

Hannah and Nathan appear to have the perfect marriage. A beautiful Cornish house with heritage, a son, a dog. Every evening, Hannah awaits her husband’s return, with a home-cooked meal, soothing conversation and, ultimately, sex.

But Nathan control Hannah’s every move – counting her change from her shopping, checking her receipts, the mileage on the car. And Hannah seems happy to let him, being a prisoner in a gilded cage. Because Hannah has a secret. She dreams of someone else, someone who once made her heart sing…

But that was a long time ago, before everything went wrong. And ever since that night on the docks, when blood splashed in the rain, Hannah has been paying the price, keeping Nathan happy, keeping the peace. But her past is going to catch up with her…

9780008347116Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees  (review copy, courtesy of Harper Collins)

An ordinary woman. A book of recipes. The perfect cover for spying…

Sent to Germany in the chaotic aftermath of World War II, Edith Graham is finally getting the chance to do her bit. Having taught at a girls’ school during the conflict, she leaps at the opportunity to escape an ordinary life – but Edith is not everything she seems to be.

Under the guise of her innocent cover story, Edith has been recruited to root out Nazis who are trying to escape prosecution. Secretly, she is sending coding messages back to the UK, hidden inside innocuous recipes sent to a friend – after all, who would expect notes on sauerkraut to contain the clues that would crack a criminal underground network?

But the closer she gets to the truth, the muddier the line becomes between good and evil. In a dangerous world of shifting loyalties, when the enemy wears the face of a friend, who do you trust?

9781408892305The Wanderers (The West Country Trilogy #2) by Tim Pears (audiobook)

Two teenagers, bound by love yet divided by fate, forge separate paths in England before World War I.

1912. Leo Sercombe is on a journey. Aged thirteen and banished from the secluded farm of his childhood, he travels through Devon grazing on berries and sleeping in the woods. Behind him lies the past and before him the West Country, spread out like a tapestry. But a wanderer is never alone for long, try as he might – and soon Leo is taken in by gypsies, with their wagons, horses, and vivid attire. Yet he knows he cannot linger and must forge on toward the western horizon.

Leo’s love, Lottie, is at home. Life on the estate continues as usual, yet nothing is as it was. Her father is distracted by the promise of new love and Lottie is increasingly absorbed in the natural world: the profusion of wild flowers in the meadow, the habits of predators, and the mysteries of anatomy. And of course, Leo is absent. How will the two young people ever find each other again?

Recently finished

Links from the title will take you to my review or the book’s entry on Goodreads

9780749026028 paris savages hbParis Savages by Katherine Johnson (eARC, courtesy of Allison & Busby)

Fraser Island, 1882. The population of the Badtjala people is in sharp decline following a run of brutal massacres. When German scientist Louis Muller offers to sail three Badtjala people – Bonny, Jurano and Dorondera – to Europe to perform to huge crowds, the proud and headstrong Bonny agrees, hoping to bring his people’s plight to the Queen of England.

Accompanied by Muller’s bright, grieving daughter, Hilda, the group begins their journey to belle-epoque Europe to perform in Hamburg, Berlin, Paris and eventually London. While crowds in Europe are enthusiastic to see the unique dances, singing, fights and pole climbing from the oldest culture in the world, the attention is relentless, and the fascination of scientists intrusive. When disaster strikes, Bonny must find a way to return home.

9780241404799Belladonna by Anbara Salam (eARC, courtesy of Fig Tree and NetGalley)

It is summer, 1954, when fifteen-year-old Bridget first meets Isabella. In their conservative Connecticut town, Isabella is a breath of fresh air. She is worldly, alluring and brazen: an enigma.

When they receive an offer to study at the Academy in Italy, Bridget is thrilled. This is her ticket to Europe and – better still – a chance to spend nine whole months with her glamorous and unpredictable best friend.

There, lodged in a convent of nuns who have taken a vow of silence, the two girls move toward a passionate but fragile intimacy. As the year rolls on, Bridget grows increasingly fearful that she will lose Isabella’s affections – and the more desperate she gets, the greater the lengths she will go to keep her. (Review to follow)

MunichMunich by Robert Harris (hardcover/audiobook)

September 1938. Hitler is determined to start a war. Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the peace. The issue is to be decided in a city that will forever afterwards be notorious for what takes place there. Munich.

As Chamberlain’s plane judders over the Channel and the Fürher’s train steams relentlessly south from Berlin, two young men travel with secrets of their own. Hugh Legat is one of Chamberlain’s private secretaries; Paul Hartmann a German diplomat and member of the anti-Hitler resistance. Great friends at Oxford before Hitler came to power, they haven’t seen one another since they were last in Munich six years earlier. Now, as the future of Europe hangs in the balance, their paths are destined to cross again .

When the stakes are this high, who are you willing to betray? Your friends, your family, your country or your conscience? (Review to follow)

9780715653555The Young Survivors by Debra Barnes (ARC, courtesy of Duckworth)

What if everyone you loved was suddenly taken away?

When Germany invades France in the Second World War, the five Laskowski children lose everything: their home, their Jewish community and, most devastatingly, their parents who are abducted in the night. There is no safe place left for them to evade the Nazis, but they cling together – never certain when the authorities will come for what is left of them.

Inspired by the poignant, true story of the author’s mother, this moving historical novel conveys the hardship, the uncertainty and the impossible choices the Laskowski children were forced to make to survive the horrors of the Holocaust.

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Gap in the Curtain by John Buchan (hardcover)

Guests at a country house party are enabled by an eccentric scientist to see a glimpse of an issue of The Times dated a year ahead of time.

 

#BookReview The Young Survivors by Debra Barnes @Duckbooks

whatcathyreadnext3 Comments

EdS7yG3XsAEgMZ2Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Young Survivors by Debra Barnes which will be published on Thursday 23rd July 2020. My thanks to Fanny at Duckworth for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my proof copy.

9780715653555About the Book

What if everyone you loved was suddenly taken away?

When Germany invades France in the Second World War, the five Laskowski children lose everything: their home, their Jewish community and, most devastatingly, their parents who are abducted in the night. There is no safe place left for them to evade the Nazis, but they cling together – never certain when the authorities will come for what is left of them.

Inspired by the poignant, true story of the author’s mother, this moving historical novel conveys the hardship, the uncertainty and the impossible choices the Laskowski children were forced to make to survive the horrors of the Holocaust.

Format: Paperback (304 pages)    Publisher: Duckworth
Publication date: 23rd July 2020 Genre: Historical fiction

Find The Young Survivors on Goodreads

Pre-order/Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Young Survivors concerns the children of the Laskowski family – eldest son, Pierre, his younger brothers, Samuel and Claude, and his two young sisters, twins Georgette and Henriette. Alternating between the first person narratives of Pierre, Samuel and occasionally Georgette, their experiences are related without any literary flourishes, reflecting both their youth and the fact they don’t always understand, at least to begin with, the full import or implications of the things they see and hear. Indeed, for the younger children, moving to a new place is often merely an opportunity for exploration or to make new friends.

Opening in 1938, initially the prospect of war seems a distant possibility despite the fact the family live in Metz, close to France’s border with Germany. They, like so many others, place their faith in the Maginot line. Only gradually do the youngsters become aware of the consequences of their Jewish faith as playground abuse by other children develops into more virulent anti-Jewish sentiment, fuelled by broadcasts of Hitler’s speeches, and then to legal restrictions on their daily lives. Forced to move to Sally, a village near Poitiers, it places them in the demarcation zone beyond Vichy France when the Germans invade.

Through the children’s faithful accounts of everything that happens to them, the book reveals how life in wartime France for Jewish families like the Laskowskis, whichever side of the demarcation line, becomes increasingly difficult and dangerous. The Vichy government collaborates in the implementation of anti-Jewish laws and the rounding up of Jews to meet German quotas. Only the courage of a few French men and women keeps the children safe, even if that does involve frequent moves. Nevertheless, they still suffer the anguish of separation and not knowing what has become of their parents.

As the end of the war approaches, there are increasingly dramatic scenes with narrow escapes and sudden changes of location. Yet when peace does finally come it does not necessarily bring an end to the challenges faced by the children. For me, it was at this point in the book that the author really captured the emotional and psychological toll of their experiences. In Samuel’s words: “The hope, the anticipation, the wait…and then the disappointment and despair”.

Pierre’s narrative gives the reader a picture of a young man with a keen sense of responsibility to protect his younger siblings. With the arrest of his mother and father, aunt and uncle, he’s suddenly thrust into the position of having to make potentially life or death decisions on behalf of others even as the world he knows crumbles around him.

The chapters narrated by Georgette I found especially poignant. As a twin, the threat of separation is even more overwhelming and, for such a young child, the hatred her family face is difficult for her to understand. “Without our parents to explain it to us, we had no idea what it was to be Jewish except it meant the Germans and many of the French hated us.” It was heart-warming to witness her enjoyment of simple, if rare, pleasures like a visit to the park or playing with her doll.

In war, there are rarely happy endings but in the final chapters the reader does at least get some answers to the questions raised in the prologue.

Books, even if works of fiction, that tell the stories of Holocaust survivors are often difficult to read. However, they are usually an inspiring testament to the resilience of the human spirit. The Young Survivors is no exception. In her introduction, Debra writes, “As the generation of Holocaust survivors pass away, the mantel of responsibility for telling survival stories rests on the second generation.” I would go further and say even those with no direct connection owe it to those who suffered to ensure their stories continue to be heard. Indeed, the fact The Young Survivors is written from the perspective of the Laskowski children, I think means the book would be both accessible and educational for teenage readers.

I found The Young Survivors an absorbing story of loss, separation, courage and hope.

In three words: Authentic, factual, moving

Try something similar: The Hidden Village by Imogen Matthews or Living Among the Dead by Adena Bernstein Astrowsky

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Debra Barnes
©Adam Soller Photography

About the Author

Debra Barnes studied journalism and has contributed to the Jewish News. Since January 2017 she has run a project called My Story for The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) to produce individual life story books for Holocaust survivors and refugees. She has been interviewed by BBC Radio regarding her mother’s story and has had a short documentary made about her research. Debra lives in North London and The Young Survivors is her first book.

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