Reviewed by Emma Crowley
1945. Hedi Fischer is jostled off the train and through the gates of a Nazi concentration camp. As the prisoners are pushed inside, she frantically searches for a familiar face – anybody to make her feel less alone here. At the constant mercy of the cruel and unpredictable guards, Hedi knows it is only luck and her wits that will keep her alive now. That is, until her eyes meet the gentle gaze of a blue-eyed British soldier, and everything changes in a moment…
Present Day. Thea has never met her grandmother Hedi, so she’s surprised when she receives a call to take her home. She’s not sure how the elegant ninety-year-old woman will fit into her life – especially as she’s just rashly quit her job in the city to rent a tiny, stone cottage miles from the nearest town. Sharp, feisty Hedi refuses to talk about how she ended up here, or why she and Thea’s mother haven’t spoken for more than thirty years. So when Thea spots Hedi’s battered suitcase on their scrubbed wood kitchen table, she can’t resist the chance to learn more.
What Thea finds inside is more heartbreaking than she could have ever imagined. Hedi’s memories, so long kept hidden from the world, could be the key to finally putting three generations of family secrets to rest…
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Hideaway to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Hideaway is the second book that I have read by Norma Curtis and I have to say I enjoyed it immensely. It’s a quick read but certainly an emotional and heartfelt one which is centred on a fractured relationship in a family because one woman has been holding a secret close to her chest for a very long time. This book has the most gorgeous of covers which draws you in and makes you want to visit the Hideaway. The cottage becomes a focal point for the story and it’s characters. It becomes a place where the characters can heal as they reveal their story and try to reconcile the past with the present. This is a story about home which is a place heard to define but you know once you have gotten there. The main character Hedi has kept a part of themselves secret ever since the conclusion of World War Two and therefore those that try to love her feel they can’t love the whole of her because they don’t really know her. Hedi’s experiences have meant a certain section of her life has been a closed book but the time has arrived to open the pages and share her story.
In the present day, Hedi is 93 and has spent a long time with her husband Harry. He is slowly slipping away and asks for the phone to speak to his daughter Maggie. This is very unusual as there has been a deep rift between Maggie and her parents. They argued one day and she left with her daughter Thea and never came back. There has been no communication but Hedi still has her number. She has lived with regret all her life and when Harry places the phone call Maggie is surprised as she as presumed her parents have been long dead. Maggie is not very receptive, even more so when soon after Hedi must contact Maggie again to tell her that Harry has passed away. The hurt and pain oozes from the pages and Hedi places a lot of the blame on herself. Her refusal to talk about the past has had such a detrimental effect on those living in the present. Everything has been hidden for so long she fears she can no longer reveal the truth.
The barrier that exists between Maggie and her parents grows ever stronger when she refuses to come to Harry’s funeral. Instead, she sends her daughter Thea, who is even more surprised to learn that she has grandparents still living. What follows is the beautiful development of a relationship between Hedi and Thea. One which will be transformative and restorative. Hedi has more or less given up following the death of her beloved who saved her when things were at their worst for her. She prepares to leave this world to, doing very strange things and disposing of everything in the flat that herself and Harry shared. Even though Thea does not know her grandmother she feels she can’t let her go like this. She needs to prove to her that life is still worth living and by hopefully sharing her story she can come to terms with the past and allow those in the present to gain an understanding and acceptance for Hedi’s harsh reaction which caused the family rift in the first place.
Thea is a school secretary and just as the holidays approached the art teacher Adam, proposed to her. Thea’s reaction was to turn and run as she has a major problem with commitment. As she leaves London for the summer, she is in search of something but doesn’t know what. By pure chance, she comes across a cottage, surrounded by woods and a flower meadow with a jetty, at the end of the garden. Everything looks beautiful and peaceful although the cottage is full of dust and has an air of neglect but it speaks to her and it speaks to the reader too. It was so vividly described and it felt like a place to escape to and to seek refuge. It took on an almost magical quality and when Thea goes to her grandfather’s funeral a connection is established with Hedi and she brings her back to the Hideaway. Hedi is flattened and crushed by Harry’s loss and she just wants to die in peace but Thea won’t let that happen. I thought despite not having met in so long and Thea was but a mere young child when they did, that the bond they forged over the course of the time spent at the cottage was just so beautiful, raw and real. There is an open heartedness and willingness to listen and share with each other. It was like Thea almost forgot her own personal life situation, which to be honest wasn’t the crux of the book, nor should it have been and the focus was able to be 100% on Hedi’s story and what a story it was.
When Hedi and Thea are at the cottage the plot slips back and forth seamlessly between the present day and the last months of the war where Hedi had been incarcerated in the Bergen Belsen camp. Hedi’s story is harrowing and no details are spared but it goes an awful long way in explain why she reacted the way she did with Maggie. I have read lots and lots of historical fiction but this was something different because it focused on the prisoners experiences in the last weeks of the war when the British were allowed into the camp to help the Germans as typhus raged and they couldn’t do anything to stop it. The Germans knew defeat was in sight and without Harry and his fellow soldiers and the Red Cross Hedi may never have left the hell hole that was Bergen Belsen.
The scenes set in the camp are horrific and traumatising and the anger, frustration and despair is evident from the prisoners. All the women are crowded into barracks in the most inhumane of conditions. Disease, death and starvation are rife, and they are reduced to walking skeletons. Hedi had been imprisoned due to her father’s political beliefs and she longs for the day when she can break free. Everything has been taken away from her - freedom, family, possessions, looks, pride, self-respect, free will and her health. That is everything except her identity which she holds close to her heart. Hedi is strong and does her best for those that surround her in the barracks. She knows that with the arrival of the British that there is an air of hope in the air but with typhus running riot, death could be calling at any moment. The relationship she develops with one or two fellow women was heart-breaking to read. The aspect of the book following Hedi in the camp most definitely highlighted that the human spirit has the capacity to shine through the deepest darkness, that it can remain steadfast, bright, hopeful, untarnished and full of love.
There were numerous descriptions of the women’s existence in the camp and what they were reduced to doing and they will leave you open mouthed in shock. There was also one particular account of how the Germans needed to dispose of bodies quicker which had my stomach churning. As mentioned, I do feel all these descriptions needed to be there and Hedi had to tell everything to Thea as they existed in their bubble at the cottage. If Hedi had not done so I don’t think Thea would have fully appreciated what caused the chasm that existed in her family and she wouldn’t have worked so hard to bridge it. The connection that developed between Harry and Hedi at the camp I felt was slightly underplayed. I know given the circumstances they couldn’t be with each other 24/7 but I just thought it needed a bit more fleshing out.They needed to meet and talk more often although when push comes to shove and Hedi realises the worst he was there for her.
The Hideaway was a really engaging and absorbing read that hits you deep in the heart. It’s a story of courage, survival and finding your home and ‘of trudging through the darkness until the sun rose again’. I much preferred this story to the previous book I had read by Norma Curtis as I felt there wasn’t any long drawn out parts that didn’t add anything to the story. Instead, the pace was perfect and the plot gave the reader an insight into a time of the war which is usually merely glanced over as an author hurtles towards the end of a book. This is a book I would definitely recommend as Hedi and her story will deeply affect you.
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