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From Auschwitz to the Blue Mountains – a journey in five books

Jun 30, 2018

Are we allowing freedom of speech to disappear

Here we are at the end of June and half-way through the year … another year.

I remember having no sympathy whatsoever for my older relations saying “where did the year go to?” Now in my 70th year, I am not only older than many of those “older” relations, but I also hear myself saying the same things.

Fortunately, I have so many projects in my life, so many books to read, music to listen to people to see and places to go, I expect that I’ll never accuse a year of passing slowly.

Speaking of which, my reading this month has been very mixed. I started with The Tattooist of Auschwitz which I found I could only read in small doses. Ultimately an uplifting story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, nonetheless I had to take time away from the book to try to clear some of the more disturbing images painted by Heather Morris.

The threat of being called collaborators always hung over the heads of Jewish people who chose to live, rather than succumb in the camps. I’ve never understood this attitude, nor can I understand the same charge laid against women who stayed alive by becoming “comfort” women – a euphemism applied to the women set up in brothels in POW camps.

After the war, Chilka, one of the women characters in The Tattooist of Auschwitz was found guilty of collaboration and sentenced to 15 years in prison in Siberia – surviving is a crime? When you read what this poor woman went through “collaborating”, you will understand what I mean. I ask myself “what would I do?” I admit, my heart says one thing, my head another. Ah, the advantage of a rhetorical question and 20/20 hindsight.

I needed something a little lighter and thought I would find it in Those Other Women by Nicola Moriarty. Surprisingly I had not read Nicola’s previous works, a situation I plan to remedy. I thought I was about to read a story of marital infidelity, the classic “other woman” story but that is not the story Nicola told.

This book drew some pictures of “Other” women I did not want to see. Why are women so hard on other women? Why are we more judgemental with each other than a man would ever be? I’d love to say I have never acted like any of the women in the story, but I’d be lying. Many of the stories told are heartbreaking but excellent writing stops the book from ever becoming maudlin. I highly recommend this book to married, single, childless women and/or women with children – you may just learn some understanding for each other.

I admit I’ve been a bit dismissive of Danielle Steele’s books … but that changed recently when I read her fiction thriller about a man determined to be famous for bringing down an aeroplane and the woman determined to stop him.

I expected Accidental Heroes to be a “nice little read for hols” full of people living fantasy lives and calling an ingredient for a meal the “hero” of the dish. Instead, I found myself reading a well-constructed thriller which held my interest until the last, with any number of red herrings to gladden the heart of the amateur detective.

This lead me to see what as available at my library and to Danielle’s heartbreaking story about her son Nick, His Bright Light. In her own words:

This is the story of an extraordinary boy with a brilliant mind, a heart of gold, and a tortured soul. It is the story of an illness, a fight to live, and a race against death. I want to share the story, and the pain, the courage, the love, and what I learned in living through it. I want Nick’s life to be not only a tender memory for us but a gift to others. . . . I would like to offer people hope and the realities we lived with. I want to make a difference. My hope is that someone will be able to use what we learned and save a life with it.

Many tissues later, I am glad I read this mother’s story. I cannot imagine how hard it was for her to write such a personal book and trust that others will learn from her experience and their knowledge saves a life.

Liz Byrski fans rejoice! Tuesday 26 June saw the release of her new novel A Month of Sundays. I promise you, Liz has written another enthralling “unputdownable” book. It should come with a warning, however, that not only will it engage you totally, but as it is about a book club, there are other books discussed in its pages which will send you scurrying to your library.