1946. Three years after a cataclysmic event which tore their lives apart, a mother and daughter flee Poland for Paris, shame, and fear at their heels, not knowing how hard it is to escape your past.
Nearly eighty years later, Gretel Fernsby lives a life that is a far cry from her traumatic childhood. When a couple moves into the flat below her in her London mansion block, it should be nothing more than a momentary inconvenience. However, the appearance of their nine-year-old son Henry brings back memories she would rather forget.
Faced with a choice between her own safety and his, Gretel is taken back to a similar crossroads she encountered long ago. Back then, her complicity dishonoured her life, but to interfere now could risk revealing the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting.
I should have a rating for 'didn't exactly enjoy the read, but glad I read it'. Because some books are difficult to read, for one reason or another, but I'm usually glad at the end that I stuck with it. I can imagine that this book will spur debate, too, and I look forward to seeing what other people think.
Personally...well, I'm still trying to work it out, really. Gretel was, after all, a twelve year old girl who had been steeped in Nazi philosophy all her life, and even if she had overcome that to protest about the treatment of the Jews...she was a twelve year old girl surrounded by men who would not have tolerated argument from her. It's true that she could have turned herself in after the war, but I can understand why she didn't.
The tone of this is very different from Striped Pajamas. Probably, to be fair, because that was from the point of view of a child, and this is a teen-to-young-adult-to-adult; but the tone doesn't really vary no matter what age Gretel is. It was interesting seeing her at different points in her life, but I did find that a couple of times, she referenced things that happened in the past before we 'saw' them, which took all the suspense out of things.
Overall, though, I - again, I can't say that I enjoyed it, because parts of it are really heavy going. But I am very glad I read it, I'll be thinking about it for a long time, and I'm going to be shoving it at people and imploring them to read it for quite a while.
All the Broken Places publishes on the 15th September, 2022 in the UK (above) and on the 29th November, 2022 in the US (below). I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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