The good doctor of Warsaw - Elizabeth Gifford

'You do not leave a sick child alone to face the dark and you do not leave a child at a time like this.'

Deeply in love and about to marry, students Misha and Sophia flee a Warsaw under Nazi occupation for a chance at freedom. Forced to return to the Warsaw ghetto, they help Misha's mentor, Dr Korczak, care for the two hundred children in his orphanage. As Korczak struggles to uphold the rights of even the smallest child in the face of unimaginable conditions, he becomes a beacon of hope for the thousands who live behind the walls.

As the noose tightens around the ghetto Misha and Sophia are torn from one another, forcing them to face their worst fears alone. They can only hope to find each other again one day...

Meanwhile, refusing to leave the children unprotected, Korczak must confront a terrible darkness.

Half a million people lived in the Warsaw ghetto. Less than one percent survived to tell their story. This novel is based on the true accounts of Misha and Sophia, and on the life of one of Poland's greatest men, Dr Janusz Korczak.

My thoughts:
"Finally the ghetto understands what the Germans intend. If they can take the children, they can take everybody."

If that is a spoiler then you need to read a history book. I knew this would be sad, it was Warsaw! All in all, in Poland 90% of the Jewish population was murdered. The question is more, who will survive. Because some did, even though it is really hard to understand how anyone made it through. And once again I do not understand that hate and madness of mankind. Just because they are Jewish! I will never understand that.

I had never heard of Dr Korczak, (or might have in my studies and forgot). He did his best to protect the children in his orphanage and then to try and feed them as the walls closed in. And take in every child he could. Oh he was a wonderful person filled with hope, what a good man! And those children, so happy to be there with him in those dark days.

The book is also about Misha and Sophia. Misha who works for Korczak, and then he meets Sophia. All she wants is to become a teacher and she loves the ideas Korczak has. 

But yes then the war starts. Then the ghetto comes into play. And then the Germans start moving people out.

Still it was not a sad book, I mean obviously it was sad, but it was so filled with hope because of Dr K and his kids. They were the light, while through Misha and Sophia we saw the darker sides.

Conclusion;

A book that should be read so we do not forget.

Return to Fourwinds - Elizabeth Gifford

At Fourwinds they gather: Alice and Ralph, Patricia and Peter, to celebrate the marriage of their children. The marquee is on the lawn, breathing in and out in the summer heat. But the bride is nowhere to be seen.

As both families are drawn together, the past floods through the corridors of the old house. What secret has Ralph been keeping from his wife? What is it about Alice's wartime encounter with Peter that has haunted her ever since? And what could have caused Sarah to vanish without a word to any of the people she loves?

Moving from the orange groves of Valencia and the spacious houses of the British countryside to the post-war slums in the north, Return to Fourwinds is a sweeping, lyrical story of the things we tell and the things we keep to ourselves. Is Sarah's disappearance a culmination of the pressures that have kept the two families apart? Or can they work together to bring her back to Fourwinds? 

My thoughts:

As for big secrets, yeah, I would not say they were big. People were just stupid. Everything had to be perfect, to look perfect, and if something was the slightest off, not good. They came from that era so it was understandable.

The book starts with Nicky and Sarah about to get married. She runs away and we go back in time.

Alice who grew up privileged, but not privileged enough for some so she strive for perfection.

Ralph her husband grew up in Spain. His story is the one of his mother and her new husband and the secrets there.

Then we have Patricia and Peter. Patricia does not really have a secret, and neither does Peter. But Peter grew up in the slums and wanted to make something for himself. He also knows Alice from the war. Ok so that secret was not really something she should feel bad about.

Their life before the war, and during the war, and after it. Lives were shaped. But I must say, Sarah's choice had nothing to do with those secrets. I'd rather have it as an aftermath of all of that. She still had a secret and I will say nothing more than I totally understood why she ran.

I liked what we later learned about Spain, now there was a book. I also liked the social clashes. Rich and poor. Newly rich. They all looked down on someone else.

Conclusion:

An interesting book

Cover

Ok

Paperback, 368 pages
Published June 4th 2015 by Corvus
Historical fiction
For review

Review: Secrets of the Sea House - Elizabeth Gifford

Scotland, 1860. Reverend Alexander Ferguson, naïve and newly-ordained, takes up his new parish, a poor, isolated patch on the Hebridean island of Harris. His time on the island will irrevocably change the course of his life, but the white house on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after Alexander departs. 

It will be more than a century before the Sea House reluctantly gives up its secrets. Ruth and Michael buy the grand but dilapidated building and begin to turn it into a home for the family they hope to have. But their dreams are marred by a shocking discovery. The tiny bones of a baby are buried beneath the house; the child's fragile legs are fused together - a mermaid child. Who buried the bones? And why? Ruth needs to solve the mystery of her new home - but the answers to her questions may lie in her own past. 

Based on a real nineteenth-century letter to The Times in which a Scottish clergyman claimed to have seen a mermaid, Secrets of the Sea House is an epic, sweeping tale of loss and love, hope and redemption, and how we heal ourselves with the stories we tell.

My thoughts:

This was a book of mystery and legend, and set in in modern times and in the 1800s. 

First there is Ruth who came the Hebrides because her mother had told Ruth that that was where they were from. But she does not know anything more than that or who her father was. She also had a really crappy life after her mother died and she has some issues from that. This book is then the discovery of her own past. She also wants to find out about the house they live in as they find a "mermaid" baby under the floor. In the background there is the selkie myth binding the the two stories together as Ruth's mother had told her they came from selkies.

Back in time reverend Alexander Ferguson comes to the far away Hebrides and his new parish. He is trying to find out about the truth about mermaids/selkies. Back in his time we also see through the eyes of Moira, his maid. She did not have an easy lot in life. The laird of the isle is evil and evicts his people and sends them to Canada because he wants the land. And living there was hard to begin with. While I read about these two I wondered how the baby got there, but there is much to go through before that.

I also loved the explanation she used for the selkie myth. It is one that has been known, but yes like Alexander I would have loved the idea of real selkies. I will not tell you anything more cos if you do not know the explanation then you can be surprised here.

Conclusion:

Some books I read fast, some I read slower. This one was one of the slower ones as I had to take it all in, the prose was different too and it's one of those books you read and reflect on (which I seems to have done a lot lately.) But it's all good

Cover

ok

Mass Market Paperback, 303 pages
Published January 2nd 2014 by Corvus (first published August 1st 2013)
Fiction / Historical fiction
for review