The Sea Gate

Finished March 31

The Sea Gate by Jane Johnson

This novel has two timelines. 

First we see the contemporary timeline, where Rebecca has just lost her mother to cancer. Her mother kept her health condition from Rebecca to protect her, but Rebecca has recently gone through her own health crisis and is now dealing with a personal crisis that only feels more immediate with the loss of her mother. As Rebecca and her brother clear out their mom's home, she finds letters from an older cousin of her mom's who she vaguely remembers. Olivia lives in Cornwall and has asked Rebecca's mother to come and assist her.

The earlier timeline is during World War II when Olivia is nearly fifteen. Her father has gone off to war, her mother to do war work in London, and she is left in Cornwall in the family home with two London evacuees, a woman and child, and two Land Girls who work on the nearby farm. Also on the farm are some POW workers. 

Rebecca makes a sudden decision to go to Cornwall herself, and she finds the situation much more complex than expected. Olivia still lives in the family home, but she's suffered health setbacks and the authorities are insisting that she be forced into a care home unless changes are made to the house. These include putting in a proper bathroom with accessibility in mind, creating a bedroom for Olivia on the main floor, and a few other changes for safety. The house hasn't been maintained well as Rebecca soon discovers and Olivia has financial issues as well as secrets. The house has secrets of its own, and as Rebecca finds some of them are determined to reveal themselves.

Rebecca's own common law relationship is a very dysfunctional one, and as she finds the time distanced from that situation, she also is able to see her life more clearly. 

Olivia is a strong character and the common thread between these two times, and we see her story link them together in interesting and unexpected ways. 

This book was disturbing at times with scenes of abuse and violence, both domestic and situational, but the characters of Rebecca and Olivia were a strong focus. 

Letters Across the Sea

Finished December 24 

Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham

This historical fiction novel takes place from the early 1930s until after World War II and revolves around two characters. Molly Ryan is the daughter of a police officer in Toronto, and her best friend is a Jewish girl the same age, Hannah Dreyfus. Both have older brothers who play league baseball. As the 1930s brought increasing prejudice against Jews, Molly is dismayed to see this appear in her own neighbourhood and among people she knows. 

Molly has been working in a local grocery store to help her family, but as the Depression worsens, she loses that job, and struggles to find another. She also grows more determined to follow her heart by taking journalism classes with the aim of becoming a reporter someday. 

Hannah is involved with a young man, and as the racial prejudice grows the girls drift apart. Her brother Max also has a goal, to become a doctor. Quotas for Jews in the program mean that he doesn't get into the University of Toronto, but he does get into a medical school and, just as he is finishing the war starts, and he enlists as a medic. 

At first, he is stationed in North America, but as things escalate in Europe and the British want a presence in Hong Kong, some Canadian soldiers are sent there. They have little combat training and don't know the small group of islands well, and are sitting ducks when the Japanese attack with more force than predicted shortly after Pearl Harbor. 

As Max tries to protect his fellow soldiers, and struggles to survive himself, Molly tries to follow what is happening in the Far East, and bring attention to it in her role as a reporter. 

This is a story that highlights a lesser known part of WWII, and the Canadians that served there. It also brings to light the racial prejudice of the time, and how media influences what people think.

A very interesting read. 

The Deepest Night

Finished June 27
The Deepest Night by Shana Abe

This is the second book in the series that started with The Sweetest Dark. It is 1915 and Lora Jones is a scholarship student at Iverson, a prestigious boarding school for upper class young ladies housed in an old castle on England's southern coast. Lora grew up in an orphanage, and spent some time in a mental institution as well due to the music that she hears due to her special abilities. In the first book in the series, Lora discovered that she wasn't an ordinary human girl, but one that could change into a dragon. Here, she is recovering from injuries she received then, and has a new mission, to rescue Aubrey the eldest son of her benefactor, who is in a POW prison in Austria.
To help her, she has only the younger son of her benefactor, Armand, a young man who has fallen in love with her although her love is elsewhere. Armand does what he can to protect Lora, whether at the school, or outside of it. Even sometimes from his own father. And Lora does what she can to protect Armand, even as he begins to go through the changes that will bring him into his own dragon transformation.
I enjoyed the first book and always meant to follow up on the series, and am glad that I did. A lot of the plot here has to do with social classes, but there is also World War One which figures strongly in the book. Lora has her baggage from the past, and she has challenges in the present with not only the mission that the stars have for her now, but also with some of the girls that she goes to school with and with the social situation that she finds herself in. I really liked her as a character, and how she developed over the course of the book.
Looking forward to reading the third one

Prisoner of Warren

Finished January 31
Prisoner of Warren by Andreas Oertel

This children's novel is set in the summer of 1944 in rural New Brunswick. Thirteen-year-old Warren Webb is upset that his parents have decided to take on a German prisoner of war (POW) as a worker on their farm. He and his best friend Tom and determined that they must defend themselves from this threat and kill him before he kills them.
But then Warren meets Martin, the young man who speaks good English, works hard, and takes the time to explain things to Warren. With Martin sleeping in the same room as Warren, and the two tasked with all the work needed to bring indoor plumbing to the Webb home, they learn a lot about each other. When Warren finds that Martin, like himself, is a sprinter, the connection becomes stronger.
Three older boys, known for their bullying behaviour make Warren and Martin targets after they come to the assistance of two local girls. The ensuing conflict will have Warren drawing on skills within himself that he never realized he had.
Warren also misses his older brother Pete, who died from polio, and talks to him whenever he wants advice. This provides a sounding board and source of humour for Warren at times of indecision.
This is a book that deals with the issues of war, the propaganda that is built around it, bullying, and friendship.

For another book written for youth on POWs in Canada, see Uncertain Soldier by Karen Bass.

Uncertain Soldier

Finished August 8
Uncertain Soldier by Karen Bass

This book is set mostly in the Peace River region of Alberta during World War II. The main character is Erich Hofmeyer, a young German soldier, who was captured when his ship was destroyed. He suffered burns, was treated, and then ended up in a POW camp near Lethbridge.
Erich speaks English fluently as his mother's parents live in England. He was visiting them just before war broke out and reflects sometimes on this timing. Erich's father forced him to enlist after he graduated from high school at sixteen, and he is now seventeen.
Erich is bullied by other POWs who have Nazi sympathies and, when they are aware of his English skills, want him to spy for them. When an incident occurs, Erich is giving a chance to join a work gang as a lumberjack in the Peace region, and jumps at it. Being a city boy, he finds the lack of amenities difficult to get used to, but the environment is pleasant, and the man who owns the land is fair. Erich gets to know the other men he works with, both Canadians and prisoners, and finds good and bad in both. He also finds Henry, the man he works for a fatherly figure. Their hired girl Cora is not disposed to look on Germans kindly, but their similarity in age begins to bridge their differences.
Erich also befriends Max, a younger boy who lives in the area. Max is being bullied because of his father being German, and feels increasingly isolated. His contact with Erich gives him not only camaraderie, but also a confidant for some of his issues.
Another young man, Christmas, is also isolated, as a native who doesn't talk much, but works hard. Christmas is fond of Max, and the boy becomes a bridge between the two young men who care about him.
This is a story of prejudice, of bullying behaviour, of people being able to change their views based on experience and knowledge rather than generalizations. This is a story of friendship and coming of age for Erich. Good characters with depth and insight.

Accidental Captives

Finished August 6
Accidental Captives: the story of seven women alone in Nazi Germany by Carolyn Gossage

This is an interesting nugget of history I wasn't aware of until I heard of this book. The women were on an Egyptian ship bound for South Africa. On the ship were missionaries bound for Africa, women and children on their way to join their husbands, US tobacco farmers, and volunteer ambulance workers volunteering with the Free French army. This book concentrates on the Canadian women on board, and follows them from the beginning of the trip, through the bombing of the ship by Germans, the capturing of all those on board, their landing in occupied France, and their internment in Germany. Seven of the Canadian women went on to get permission to travel to Berlin to try to secure their release, and this book follows them through the months in Berlin and their trip home.
Using official documents, books published by a couple of the women, articles by a life journalist and photographer on board the ship, and family documents of the women, Gossage is able to piece together this amazing story. Four of the women had written down at least parts of their story, and these help us to see the reality of their lives through these difficult months. One of the four had two small children with her, and chose not to leave the internment home for the uncertainty of Berlin, a wise move in retrospect. The ones who did make it to Berlin showed adventure, stamina, and a sense of optimism that got them through, making friends with the locals, and finding lighter moments even in the midst of disappointment.
Well-researched, this book gives us a view into another part of history.

World War II Novel

Finished June 21
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
This story begins in Poland at the estate Kaminheim, owned by the Emmerich family. The Russians are advancing and due to the stories being told of their brutality against civilians, most people are fleeing in advance of them. The Emmerichs, consisting of Irmgard and Rolf and three of their children, Anna, Helmut and Theo. They also have with them Callum, a POW from Scotland who was working on their farm and whom Anna is having a secret relationship with. They must cross the frozen Vistula river and keep moving west from there. Part of the reason they are travelling with Callum is that they hope the might meet up with British forces eventually and that he will vouch for them.
We also follow Uri, a German Jew who escaped from a train travelling to the camps and has since been taking on various identities, often of German soldiers, to survive. He is looking for his sister Rebekah who was also taken to the camp and whom he is not sure still lives.
The third story is that of Cecile, a French Jew who had been working in a factory attached to a camp and is now being moved west with the rest of her camp to an uncertain destination. She feels close to Jeanne and tries to keep her motivated to live and hope for rescue from their situation.
As they all work their way west, they encounter each other and play roles that influence the direction of each others' lives.
This is a story of strong characters, particularly Anna and Uri, and the feelings that underlie their actions. The situation is constantly changing, but always somewhat desperate and none of them are really sure what they are ultimately hoping for.