I just finished reading 'Far to Go' by Alison Pick (our latest book club book) and would recommend it highly. Its set in pre World War II Czechslovakia, in a Jewish household but is written from the view point of the German nanny.
The book is all about betrayal, staring from the British/French betrayal of Czechslovakia in the Munich Agreement, leading to the giving away of the Sudetenland to Germany, and the takeover of Czechslovakia ultimately by Hitler; and on a more personal level betrayal by friends of the Jewish family because of greed, anger, jealousy and the events leading upto their ultimate death.
What was different was the way the author detailed the people's lives, how they went on living their everyday lives in the hope that things would get better. There was not so much written about the atrocities committed, it was all in the background, and all through you were enmeshed in their lives with a sinking feeling in your stomach that things are going to go horribly wrong.
There are many questions raised in this book, why would people not escape when things start looking bad, why do you just stay on assuming things will get better. How are some people better able to understand the risks involved and make better decisions and why are others not?
Also greed and betrayal. There is a character in the book, Ernst who horribly betrays this Jewish family, and in the end the author says he is a fictional character in this story, but is modelled on an actual German who befriended and betrayed close to 40 Jewish families, 'just for kicks'. When we were discussing this in the book club yesterday one of the Dutch ladies mentioned that her grandaunt had hidden and saved a Jewish family in her house in Netherlands in this period (at great peril to her life) and one wonders how some people have the courage and strength to do this, while other people degrade to their worst in such situations.
Then there was the heartbreaking Kindertransports- trains running from Czech to the UK carrying fleeing Jewish children. These children were given an opportunity to escape but their parents had to stay behind, and the children were sent to foster homes in the UK. One wonders how parents would do this, send off their children to another country, to strangers, speaking a different language with little hope of meeting again, but again at least there is a chance for them to survive.
The book intrigued me enough to search on Wikipedia about the Munich Agreement and the Sudetenlands, and that is really saying something because once i finish a book i rarely think about it again.
I haven't read any books on the Indians under the British Raj (other than the Sea of Poppies series) and if you have any good recommendations please let me know. I would love to read about something closer to my heart.
The book is all about betrayal, staring from the British/French betrayal of Czechslovakia in the Munich Agreement, leading to the giving away of the Sudetenland to Germany, and the takeover of Czechslovakia ultimately by Hitler; and on a more personal level betrayal by friends of the Jewish family because of greed, anger, jealousy and the events leading upto their ultimate death.
What was different was the way the author detailed the people's lives, how they went on living their everyday lives in the hope that things would get better. There was not so much written about the atrocities committed, it was all in the background, and all through you were enmeshed in their lives with a sinking feeling in your stomach that things are going to go horribly wrong.
There are many questions raised in this book, why would people not escape when things start looking bad, why do you just stay on assuming things will get better. How are some people better able to understand the risks involved and make better decisions and why are others not?
Also greed and betrayal. There is a character in the book, Ernst who horribly betrays this Jewish family, and in the end the author says he is a fictional character in this story, but is modelled on an actual German who befriended and betrayed close to 40 Jewish families, 'just for kicks'. When we were discussing this in the book club yesterday one of the Dutch ladies mentioned that her grandaunt had hidden and saved a Jewish family in her house in Netherlands in this period (at great peril to her life) and one wonders how some people have the courage and strength to do this, while other people degrade to their worst in such situations.
Then there was the heartbreaking Kindertransports- trains running from Czech to the UK carrying fleeing Jewish children. These children were given an opportunity to escape but their parents had to stay behind, and the children were sent to foster homes in the UK. One wonders how parents would do this, send off their children to another country, to strangers, speaking a different language with little hope of meeting again, but again at least there is a chance for them to survive.
The book intrigued me enough to search on Wikipedia about the Munich Agreement and the Sudetenlands, and that is really saying something because once i finish a book i rarely think about it again.
I haven't read any books on the Indians under the British Raj (other than the Sea of Poppies series) and if you have any good recommendations please let me know. I would love to read about something closer to my heart.
1 comment:
Hmmm I can only think of books on partition - ice candy man, train to Pakistan
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