Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Poland, 1939: As I stare into the German pilot’s frightened eyes, I realise I have no choice but to help him. And in that moment, I know that this young man, and this decision, will change my life forever…
When a German pilot crashes over my parents’ farmland, at first I am terrified. Who is this man? And should I help him, or have him arrested? But when I look into his eyes for the first time, I feel in my heart that I must do everything I can to save this stranger’s life.
As I begin to secretly nurse his injuries, he tells me his name is Max. And as we share whispered candlelit conversations, he admits that he didn’t crash his plane, but parachuted over Poland to defect from the Nazis. And as he slowly tells me his story, I realise I am falling in love with this man – with his bravery, and his determination to do what is right, no matter the cost.
But when the Nazis arrive, the small world we have built together is shattered in an instant. And when the Germans arrest me and my twin siblings, dragging us to a camp in the dead of night, I know that our only chance of survival, our only hope, is to be rescued.
As I sit in my cell, I think of what Max told me. He held my hand and promised me that if we were arrested, he would go undercover as a German soldier and save us. But will the guards believe his story? And, even if they do, will he make it to us before it is too late?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Airman’s Girl to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Airman’s Girl, the new book from Carly Schabowksi, was a read that I found to be a slow burner but once I reached the midway point there was a clever little plot twist which really made me sit up and become much more engaged with the story unfolding. The story moves back and forth between 1995 as Helena is recounting her life story and Poland in 1939. She feels time is pushing down on her and that she needs to tell the big things that she remembers before they disappear. She attempts to scramble about and find the missing pieces and to try and fit them together. When she does an incredible true story emerges that at some points just left me horrified and in some ways unbelievably numb as to what I was reading. It’s only the further I got through the book the more I appreciated the details of the story and the magnitude of what the characters experience. I really began to feel that Carly Schabowksi has written an incredible story of a little known aspect of the war and in doing so has perfectly captured the pain, loss, grief and unfortunately brutality that so many people went through.
Helena takes us back to Poznan in Poland in 1939 where she lives with her parents and young siblings twins, Agata and Michal aged 10. She is a doctor who works in a mental hospital where her father is a psychiatrist. War is on the horizon and their German neighbours will soon be marching onto their land and taking control. The world is changing and growing uglier by the day. The Poles are viewed by the Germans as animals who stole the land that they believe rightly belongs to them. All Jews are considered undesirable along with people with a disability or people of a different sexual inclination.
Lies and propaganda abound as German citizens are told of Polish atrocities against them which simply aren’t true. The power of Hitler is increasing not waning and the Polish feel it will be worse than anything they could have ever imagined. A worrying voice inside Helena’s head niggles away at her that with so endless threats on the horizon and already so many sanctions and laws imposed upon Jews that perhaps the family should flee whilst they have an opportunity to do so but her father is insistent on staying and to keep helping their patients.
Helena and the twins are sent to the countryside to their Aunt Joasia. There they will hopefully be safe from the onslaught that is about to occur but is anyone really safe? They didn’t have an idea of to the extent of the destruction, pain and suffering that was about to come to their front doors. The twins appear clueless as to what is going on and what could potentially come and as a reader you are glad this is the case. But Helena is very wary and fear and tension exist in her mind daily. I sensed there was a vulnerability surrounding Helena that she could do her job working alongside her father and had great care, compassion and understanding for her patients but perhaps when push came to shove and the worst might befall them that she would struggle to cope which of course is natural. As the twins play in Joasia’s garden they build a fort but one morning they discover someone inside. An injured man lies there - Max.
Max was a navigator in the German air force and as chapters are introduced told from his viewpoint we learn more about his background. His is an emotional and complex story and as with the characters you do wrestle with the fact that originally he was Polish but moved to Germany. His heart has always been with Poland and now that his father has died his disillusionment with what is happening in Germany has grown. He abandons his plane and parachutes into Poland in the hopes that he can change to the Polish side and do something for the cause. Max, similar to Helena, battles with his emotions and what he believes is right and wrong. He is fortunate to be found by such a kind and compassionate family who tend to his injuries and listen to what he has to say and accept him at face value. As Max recovers from his injuries there is something that blossoms between himself and Helena. There is something about him that makes her want to talk to him and get to know him but at the same time she often goes inside her own head preferring to not acknowledge the fear of what is going on outside. I felt the relationship that was established between the pair occurred very quickly and was too rushed but I suppose this did need to happen in order to move the story on to the main events that occur.
As the Germans arrive, Helena and her family’s lives are altered and shattered. Max changes his surname in the hopes that he can get work as a translator with the Gestapo and in turn pass on helpful information to the Resistance. Antoni, a family friend who works for the foreign office in intelligence, can see the endless possibilities that are ahead with Max on their side and this will prove to be very true when the worst fate befalls Helena and the twins. The second half of the book took on a very dark and quite frankly disturbing tone but yet this needed to happen as what the trio go through is appalling, heart-breaking and at times very difficult to read. A little know aspect of the war is highlighted by the author and to know that this occurred in the first few months of the war and there was so much more torture and brutality to occur in so many places just blew my mind.
Helena’s father and the male patients are the first to be taken from the hospital. Their whereabouts are unknown and the anxiety in Helena only increases as she understands that she now has sole responsibility for the twins. Soon the female patients along with Helena and the twins are taken and what follows really hits the reader hard. I will not go into details but suffice to say no detail was spared which I did appreciate as it really helped me to visualise everything that was going on, what the twins and Helena and so many others were experiencing. Not to mention the fascination that occurred when the Germans discovered Michal and Agata are twins.
The scenes that follow are difficult to comprehend and absorb and the scars will last forever. But Helena must be resolute in the belief that they can survive what is being thrown at them. That people on the outside who love and protect them will try and rescue them and help them see the light of day again. Max had made a promise to her that if anything ever happened to her that he would do his utmost best to save her and by god he stood by this promise and did his damndest to right a wrong as trauma, despair and anger grow as to what has happened. It was very interesting to read of how Helena dealt with the situation she had been handed. You could see a disassociation occurring that she was floundering and despite wanting to protect the twins that she was sinking deeper and deeper into a stance she couldn’t get out of. The last quarter or so of the story was very intense and nail biting stuff and it’s an utter nightmare for all the characters and you question whether anything good can possibly come from the unfolding situation. The Airman’s Girl is another excellent read from Carly Schabowski and I know fans of historical fiction will enjoy it just as much as I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment