giveaway – Page 31 – What Cathy Read Next…

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I am delighted to be today’s host on the blog tour of Across Great Divides by Monique Roy and to bring you my review of this powerful story of one family’s struggle for a place to call home.

Two lucky people will receive a digital copy of Across Great Divides, courtesy of the author. To be in with a chance of winning, click on this link to enter the giveaway… http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/bf633057115/?

About the Book

Across Great Divides is a timeless World War II story of the upheavals of war, the power of family and the resiliency of human spirit. When Hitler comes to power in 1933, one Jewish family refuses to be destroyed and defies the Nazis only to come up against another struggle—confronting Apartheid in South Africa.

As Jews, life becomes increasingly difficult for identical twin sisters Eva and Inge under the oppressive and anti-Semitic laws of Nazi Germany. After witnessing the horrors of Kristallnacht, they flee their beloved homeland, finally finding a new home for themselves in the beautiful country of South Africa; however, just as things begin to feel safe, their new home becomes caught up in its own battles of bigotry and hate under the National Party’s demand for apartheid. Will Eva and Inge ever be allowed to live in peace? Across Great Divides is a tale of one family’s struggle to survive in a world tainted with hate, and the power of love that held them all together.

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My Review (3.5 out of 5)

As the book opens, the author depicts how life gets increasingly difficult for the family with the rise of Hitler. There are detailed descriptions of events in Berlin such as the book-burning and violence of Kristallnacht. I did feel that one or two sections read more like straight history rather than being illustrated through the experiences of Eva or her family. The author has clearly undertaken extensive research because as well as a wealth of information about events in Germany there are fascinating details about the diamond cutting and trading business.

Eva and her brother, Max, get the most page time with other members of the family, including Eva’s twin, Inge, more in the background. The unique connection between the twins is explored early on and returned to briefly later but it would have been interesting to have more focus on this.

The family’s struggle to escape from Nazi Germany illustrates the bravery and resourcefulness of those in real life who aided Jews to escape death in the concentration camps but also the opportunity for corruption for those prepared to take advantage of the situation. The family have a number of lucky escapes and are fortunate to have a seemingly unlimited stock of diamonds to ease their passage. One wonders how those without such resources would have fared.

Although powerfully told, I found some of the story lines a little too convenient and there are a couple of coincidences that seem a little far-fetched – along the lines of “of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine” (Casablanca) or, in this case, tent. However, I really liked the impression the author created of the family’s sense of uprootedness, of feeling no longer welcome somewhere they had considered home and being viewed as a hated “other”.

‘Our home was everything and then we felt like we existed nowhere. The place where I thought I would live all my life was no longer the place where I could exist at all.’

In the latter section of the book, the author juxtaposes the persecution suffered by Jewish families at the hands of the Nazis with the discrimination meted out to black South Africans through the apartheid system. Of the family, only Max and Eva really seem to see the parallels and some of the responses of other family members are surprising given their own experiences. The author’s love of South Africa is clear from the wonderful descriptions of the landscape and scenery of Cape Town.

I did enjoy the book and admire the author for attempting to explore some weighty themes.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Neverland Book Tours and the author in return for an honest review.

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About the Author

Monique was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and her grandparents were European Jews who fled their home as Hitler rose to power. It’s their story that inspired her to write Across Great Divides. She is also the author of a middle-grade book, Once Upon a Time in Venice, and Monique is working on her third novel, which also takes place during the World War II.

Connect with Monique
Website http://www.monique-roy.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/MonWriter1
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AcrossGreatDivides/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/Monique_Roy

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New arrivals

Another week of (relative) self-restraint…

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti (ebook, NetGalley)

After years spent living on the run, Samuel Hawley moves with his teenage daughter Loo to Olympus, Massachusetts. There, in his late wife’s hometown, Hawley finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at school and grows curious about her mother’s mysterious death. Haunting them both are twelve scars Hawley carries on his body, from twelve bullets in his criminal past – a past that eventually spills over into his daughter’s present, until together they must face a reckoning yet to come. Both a coming of age novel and a literary thriller, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley explores what it means to be a hero, and the price we pay to protect the people we love most.

The Wages of Sin by Kaite Welsh (eARC, NetGalley)

Sarah Gilchrist has fled London and a troubled past to join the University of Edinburgh’s medical school in 1882, the first year it admits women. She is determined to become a doctor despite the misgivings of her family and society, but Sarah quickly finds plenty of barriers at school itself: professors who refuse to teach their new pupils, male students determined to force out their female counterparts, and—perhaps worst of all—her female peers who will do anything to avoid being associated with a fallen woman. Desperate for a proper education, Sarah turns to one of the city’s ramshackle charitable hospitals for additional training. The St Giles’ Infirmary for Women ministers to the downtrodden and drunk, the thieves and whores with nowhere else to go. In this environment, alongside a group of smart and tough teachers, Sarah gets quite an education. But when Lucy, one of Sarah’s patients, turns up in the university dissecting room as a battered corpse, Sarah finds herself drawn into a murky underworld of bribery, brothels, and body snatchers. Painfully aware of just how little separates her own life from that of her former patient’s, Sarah is determined to find out what happened to Lucy and bring those responsible for her death to justice. But as she searches for answers in Edinburgh’s dank alleyways, bawdy houses and fight clubs, Sarah comes closer and closer to uncovering one of Edinburgh’s most lucrative trades, and, in doing so, puts her own life at risk…

The Beaufort Bride: The Life of Margaret Beaufort (Beaufort Chronicles #1) by Judith Arnopp (ebook, 99p)

As King Henry VI slips into insanity and the realm of England teeters on the brink of civil war, a child is married to the mad king’s brother. Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, takes his child bride into Wales where she discovers a land of strife and strangers. At Caldicot Castle and Lamphey Palace Margaret must put aside childhood, acquire the dignity of a Countess and, despite her tender years, produce Richmond with a son and heir.

While Edmund battles to restore the king’s peace, Margaret quietly supports his quest; but it is a quest fraught with danger. As the friction between York and Lancaster intensifies 14-year-old Margaret, now widowed, turns for protection to her brother-in-law, Jasper Tudor. At his stronghold in Pembroke, two months after her husband’s death, Margaret gives birth to a son whom she names Henry, after her cousin the king. Margaret is small of stature but her tiny frame conceals a fierce and loyal heart and a determination that will not falter until her son’s destiny as the king of England is secured.

How To Be Brave by Louise Beech (ebook, 99p)

All the stories died that morning … until we found the one we’d always known. When nine-year-old Rose is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Natalie must use her imagination to keep her daughter alive. They begin dreaming about and seeing a man in a brown suit who feels hauntingly familiar, a man who has something for them. Through the magic of storytelling, Natalie and Rose are transported to the Atlantic Ocean in 1943, to a lifeboat, where an ancestor survived for fifty days before being rescued. Poignant, beautifully written and tenderly told, How To Be Brave weaves together the contemporary story of a mother battling to save her child’s life with an extraordinary true account of bravery and a fight for survival in the Second World War. A simply unforgettable debut that celebrates the power of words, the redemptive energy of a mother’s love… and what it really means to be brave.

Widdershins by Helen Steadman (paperback, proof copy courtesy of Impress Books)

Jane Chandler is an apprentice healer. From childhood, she and her mother have used herbs to cure the sick. But Jane will soon learn that her sheltered life in a small village is not safe from the troubles of the wider world.

From his father’s beatings to his uncle’s raging sermons, John Sharpe’s life has been one of suffering and endurance. Fighting though personal tragedy, he finds his purpose: to become a witch-finder and save innocents from the scourge of witchcraft. Inspired by true events, Widdershins tells the story of the women who were persecuted and the men who condemned them.

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Book Reviews

On Wednesday, as part of the Blog Tour, I published my review of the Nordic Noir crime thriller, Faithless by Kjell Ola Dahl. On Thursday, it was another Blog Tour review, this time of the historical romance, Duels & Deception by Cindy Anstey. Friday saw my review of a book I read a while ago thanks to NetGalley, Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik. I really loved this debut novel; a tender, emotional drama that starts in World War 2 and charts the life together of two women.

Other posts

On Saturday, I published a Q&A with Megan Easley-Walsh about her historical novel, Flight Before Dawn. You can enter the giveaway to win one of three digital copies of Fight Before Dawn by clicking here – the giveaway runs until 22^nd April.

Challenge updates

Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge – 47 out of 78 books read (2 more than last week)
Classics Club – 2 out of 50 books reviewed (same as last week)
NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2017 – 24 ARCs reviewed out of 25 (4 more than last week)
From Page to Screen – 6 book/film comparisons completed (same as last week)

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading