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Blog Tour/Giveaway: Across Great Divides by Monique Roy

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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/?

DividesAbout 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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MoniqueRoyAbout 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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Book Review: Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik

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Tender story of the land, friendship and secret lives

About the Book

Publisher’s description: During the Second World War, Rene Hargreaves leaves her children with her aunt and boards a train without buying a return ticket, so sure is she that she never wants to see her husband again. Instead she starts a new life as a Land Girl on Starlight Farm. She finds its owner Elsie Boston and her country ways strange at first, yet as their relationship develops they become inextricably dependent on each other, long after the war has ended. When their shared life is suddenly threatened by a visitor who comes to stay and events that follow, they must begin to fight a war of their own against not just their community, but the nation’s press and the full force of the law.

Book Facts

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Pages: 320
  • Publication date: 27th April 2017
  • Genre: Literary, Historical Fiction

My Review (5 out of 5)

The story is based on the life of Rachel Malik’s own grandmother but, as she states, the book is ‘a fiction and not a speculation and it should be read as such’. Initially, it took me a while to adapt to the rhythm of the author’s writing style: ‘For they were all gone: two sisters married and third moved away; three brothers, dead such a long time ago – their names engraved on the memorial to prove it; her mother and her father as well’. However once I did, I really became immersed in the story and totally engaged with the two main characters, Rene and Elsie.

From the start, Elsie is an enigmatic character, cherishing her solitude and resisting intrusion from neighbours, seeing this as ‘encroachment’. At the same time, she has a ‘lonely power’ that proves strangely attractive to Rene: ‘Elsie wasn’t quite like other people, but that didn’t matter to Rene’.   Elsie’s strangeness is communicated in small ways, such as by gestures. When Rene first arrives at Starlight Farm: ‘She had offered her hand to Elsie, and Elsie had reached out hers but it wasn’t a greeting – Elsie had reached out as if she were trapped and needed to be pulled out, pulled free’. Gradually, they find each meets a kind of need in the other – Elsie, for companionship and a conduit to the outside world, and Rene, for refuge from her past: “Elsie knew that Rene fitted. A stranger to be sure, but one who didn’t make her feel strange.’

The development of Elsie and Rene’s relationship over time is tenderly observed without explicitly stating its nature.  Instead their growing mutual dependence is indicated by small things, like shared evenings listening to radio plays or the way they address each other: ‘A “we” was creeping into their talk, sometimes an “us”‘.  Eventually, Rene shares more details about her own history and the choices she has made. The War beings tumultuous change but also new beginnings for the pair. Then a figure from Rene’s past disrupts their way of life and brings with it grave consequences that puts their life together under an unwelcome and potentially life-changing spotlight.

This book is probably not everyone’s cup of tea (not that there isn’t plenty of tea drinking in it) but I absolutely fell in love with it.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Penguin Books UK, in return for an honest review.

In three words: Moving, tender, engaging

Try something similar…A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

About the Author

Rachel Malik was born in London in 1965 of mixed English and Pakistani parentage. She studied English at Cambridge and Linguistics at Strathclyde. For many years, Rachel taught English Literature at Middlesex University. Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves is her first novel.