Reviewed by Emma Crowley
When Miriam arrives at a British checkpoint she is exhausted and hungry. But deep down she knows she is still one of the fortunate ones. One of the few to survive the camps. Having lost her husband and son, Miriam clings to the hope of finding her daughter, Rosa.
Closing her eyes, an image of Rosa appears: the last time Miriam saw her in 1939, boarding a train that would take her to the safety of England. ‘Say goodbye here, Mama, the platform is too crowded,’ Rosa had said as Miriam cupped her daughter’s face with both hands and kissed her through tears.
‘Not long now, my darling,’ Miriam vows as she stands tall and walks through the gates of the checkpoint. There, she is introduced to an English officer named Jack. If Miriam has any hope of finding Rosa, Jack will need to help her travel to England.
But as Miriam begins to tell her daughter’s story, there is a look of recognition in Jack’s eyes. As he listens, he is transported back to an unforgettable English summer, to secret picnics in the long grass, and to a love that shaped the man he became. Will Jack now risk everything to help Miriam make the biggest journey of all, back to her daughter and to a hopeful future?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of Searching for My Daughter to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Searching for my Daughter by Liz Trenow is predominantly set in the aftermath of World War Two and is the story of one survivor's search for her daughter who is the only remaining member of her family. It’s a story of hope, mixed with heartbreak and despair and overall it was a quick, easy, good read yet perhaps not the most gripping that I have read so far this year in the historical fiction genre. The story is split into three parts and firstly we are introduced to Miriam Kauffman. It’s July 1945 and she has walked for days and days to reach the Russian/British border within Germany. Miriam is one of the lucky ones despite the terrible trauma that she has experienced. She has done the impossible and survived Auschwitz but her husband and son have not been so lucky and they are lost to her forever.
Miriam is suffering from exhaustion and fear and all around her people are starving and without money or the relevant papers needed to leave the country. But she has one shining light guiding her on which has kept her going through the loss of her loved ones and the brutality she was forced to endure within the camp. The fact that she knows her daughter Rosa was able to flee Germany to England with her husband Daniel before war broke out. Miriam clings to this beacon of light and is strong willed and determined to be reunited with the last remaining person she has that she loves so dearly. But what happened to Rosa during the war years? Are Rosa and her husband still alive after all this time? If they are, did they give up hope that any family members survived in Germany? Miriam wants to discover a new life or return to a semblance of the one she previously enjoyed if that is at all possible. But how can that be, given the world and her family situation are completely altered after so many years of death and destruction.
When she is finally admitted to the British base where people are recorded and can apply for a visa, she is tired and weary but remains fierce and defiant at the same time. These are the traits that will stand to her throughout the book. I think Miriam was the best written character in the book and judging the story based on its title you would think she plays the dominant part throughout. Instead, I found the story moved back and forth an awful lot which disrupted the flow of the overall search. We went back and forth an awful lot from Miriam in the present, the pre wars, the war years themselves and then in the months following the conclusion of the war and this was all done from several viewpoints. I thought the plot was struggling to establish itself and was at times a bit all over the place. It was the last quarter or so where I felt things really started to come together and then I found myself becoming more invested in the outcome but it was just a little bit too late.
Jack is an intelligence officer in the British army and since the end of war has been doing his best to avoid returning to England and once again having to work in his fathers factory. His war years did not end well when he was in a prisoner of war camp but he counts himself lucky that he made it out alive. But guilt does eat away at him that his comrades didn’t survive. He knows now he has a duty to repay those who were lost by living his life in the best way he can. As he interviews those seeking visas at the base in Germany, there is something about one woman’s story that rings bells with him and the details seem familiar. To be honest this just seemed too much of a coincidence that a connection could be made between Miriam, Rosa and Jack but without it there wouldn’t have been much of a story to tell. Jack knows Rosa, in fact he knows her very well. It was his family that Rosa stayed with upon arrival in England but something happened just prior to the outbreak of war which meant both she and Daniel had to leave Jack’s family. As to her whereabouts now Jack is clueless but meeting Miriam you can sense that spurt within him to help her find the daughter she has been separated from for seven long years.
Cleary, there is a much deeper meaning behind Jack just wanting to reunite mother and daughter and it’s in the sections where we go back and Jack recounts his family life and the time he got to know Rosa that we learn an awful lot more which gives us a much bigger picture and a deeper and greater understanding. I understood what motivated Jack and how he feels guilty for what happened just as war was about to be declared. It was a Summer that changed him but one that has stayed with him through the dark times. What was done may have had deep lasting affects but when your heart speaks loudly is it just too strong to ignore? I expected things to turn out a certain way and there were glimpses of this but to me the ending seemed a bit open ended and maybe I wanted a stronger more solid conclusion.
Rosa herself has a strong voice throughout the book and her actions in the last quarter were entirely justified for me given the insight we get into her life in Germany and what occurs when she is employed by a family. At first things seem normal but then things quickly turn dark and Rosa will carry this darkness and anger with her as she marries Daniel and flees to England. This aspect of the plot was detailed when we read of Rosa’s perspective but then was not mentioned until the later few chapters. At first when it cropped up again I thought it was quite out of place but then as it was developed I found it helped move the plot forward when it was in danger of perhaps coming to a standstill. Revenge is on her mind but in doing so will more trauma befall her?
But it worked well as it helped the many varied strands of the story to finally become woven together. Although separated from her family for so many years and existing in a marriage to Daniel that was not all she had hoped for, Rosa similar to Miriam never lost hope that they could one day be reunited if they both survived the war. The author did a very good job of showing how so many people were displaced and that once war was over things did not immediately return to normal. That the consequences were far reaching and long lasting. The different organisations established to help people locate missing family members were interesting to read about but the story showed their work was not easy and the results so desperately wanted did not always turn out in a positive manner.
Searching for my Daughter is a good book but as I have mentioned not one that will have a long lasting impact on me. It was refreshing to read a story set mostly after the war but at times I think it was too reliant of coincidences and sheer luck making some elements slightly implausible. It’s a light read that is about love, endurance and hope.
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