Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Far to go by Alison Pick Book Review



When Czechoslovakia relinquishes the Sudetenland to Hitler, the powerful influence of Nazi propaganda sweeps through towns and villages like a sinister vanguard of the Reich’s advancing army. A fiercely patriotic secular Jew, Pavel Bauer is helpless to prevent his world from unraveling as first his government, then his business partners, then his neighbors turn their back on his affluent, once-beloved family. Only the Bauers’ adoring governess, Marta, sticks by Pavel, his wife, Anneliese, and their little son, Pepik, bound by her deep affection for her employers and friends. But when Marta learns of their impending betrayal at the hands of her lover, Ernst, Pavel’s best friend, she is paralyzed by her own fear of discovery—even as the endangered family for whom she cares so deeply struggles with the most difficult decision of their lives.
Interwoven with a present-day narrative that gradually reveals the fate of the Bauer family during and after the war, Far to Go is a riveting family epic, love story, and psychological drama.

Wow!

Again, huge fan of Historical fiction so this one was a joy to read.  This book is set in the days leading up to and during the Holocaust, I think one of the darkest moments in the world's history.  But what I love about books like these, as I've said before, is that I'm not only enjoying the story but I'm learning as I go and I love that. 

For instance I had no clue about Kindertransport and this book certainly taught me the intricate details of it. 
Kindertransport managed to rescue nearly 10,000 Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia.   The way they went about rescuing these children is heartbreaking, it's just hard to imagine having to be in this situation but I think for a child you do anything you can and this just shows the huge hearts these people had......children and babies were stuffed into dresser drawers, or sent alone on trains to the United Kingdom, where unknown people raised them during the war.   The sweet part of it all is that not only were these children saved but most survived but very few managed to be reunited with their parents after the war. 

The author loosely based this book on her own family's experience, mainly her grandparents who escaped Czechoslovakia to Canada.

This book was thrilling, it was brilliantly written and I found myself unable to put it down, I don't think I've read a book as fast as this one, it literally went with me everywhere I did.  Kudos to Alison Pick.

Tuesday, April 19th: Acting Balanced
Wednesday, April 20th: Reading on a Rainy Day
Thursday, April 21st: The House of the Seven Tails
Tuesday, April 26th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Thursday, April 28th: Iwriteinbooks’s blog
Wednesday, May 4th: Books Like Breathing
Thursday, May 5th: Diary of an Eccentric
Monday, May 9th: In the Next Room
Wednesday, May 11th: Rundpinne
Thursday, May 12th: Library of Clean Reads


 TLC Book Tours provided a proof copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions are mine alone.

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