Reviewed by Emma Crowley
1939. Standing in front of the orphanage’s imposing stone walls, eleven-year-old Jewish twins Helga and Ruth shiver with fear. The war has taken their mother and father, their home in Berlin has been turned to rubble, but their soft, dark eyes meet and Helga gives Ruth a reassuring smile. They should be safe here together.
Yet every day bombs fly overhead. And when Ruth becomes desperately unwell, the girls are torn apart. As war rages on, will they ever find each other?
Paris, 1990. When Naomi moves to Paris, she hopes the city will help her find herself again. But whilst exploring the antique markets in the early morning sun, she is shocked to discover a duplicate of a photograph her mother Helga has on her mantelpiece back in London of a magnificent vine-covered villa on the outskirts of the city. Naomi soon discovers it was used as an orphanage during the Second World War. But why was the photo so precious to her mother?
When Naomi tells her mother what she’s found, Helga is furious. She begs Naomi to leave the orphanage alone. But Naomi is already desperate to discover the truth about her mother and the secrets of the other forgotten children of Montmorency. If Naomi learns the heart-shattering mistake her mother made, it will change their lives forever. But if she leaves the secrets in the past, Helga will never find out what happened to her sister…
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Forgotten Children to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
It’s been quite some time since I have read a book by Ann Bennett, so much so that I had forgotten how good her stories are. This new book, The Forgotten Children, was a quick read and that’s not because I was rushing to get through it. More so, that once I started I found it difficult to put down as I quickly became invested in Naomi’s quest to discover her mother’s history. Just what has she been keeping secret? The story is told in a dual timeline format moving seamlessly between 1939-1941 and 1990. Having the more modern day aspect of the story set in 1990 was very clever as it tied in with the falling of the Berlin Wall which was very significant for one character in particular. It really helped things come full circle especially with the way the epilogue was written which meant I felt the book got a very satisfactory ending.
The book opens in Paris in 1941 as a young girl is driven through the streets of Paris which are filled with tanks, armoured cars and soldiers with swastikas adorning every building. There is a great sense of urgency that this girl must be brought to safety as the Nazi’s have taken over the city and time is of the essence.How has this girl reached this point and why is it necessary that she flee? To discover the answers to these questions and much more I delved into the story and barely came up for air until I had reached the last page. What I really loved about The Forgotten Children is that it provided the reader with a different viewpoint to the war as told through the eyes of young children. Also, the fact that the majority of the events in the book occur before war had even been declared really showed the reader that there was much suffering and needless persecution long before September 1939 and the laws enacted and the brutalisation that occurred was just a foreshadowing of what was to come.
1990 and Naomi is about to spend six months working at the Paris branch of her law firm. She is excited at what lays ahead and it’s obvious from the beginning that she is not overly upset at leaving her partner Liam behind in London. It was clear what was going to happen with this angle of the story and in some ways I think it was there just as a means of providing some other romance in the story for Naomi. Whether it needed to be there or not I still wonder as all the other strands of the story were strong enough to sustain the entire plot. I admit to not giving this element of the book much thought as I was far more caught up in Helga and her fascinating yet traumatising experiences.
As Naomi settles into her new role she explores Paris and becomes friends with her co-worker Martine whilst also enjoying working alongside her boss Oliver on an interesting case. Whilst rambling through a Parisian market Naomi stumbles across a postcard in a frame. What made it catch her eye is the fact that the same picture stands on her mother’s bedroom windowsill. The picture shows Villa Helvita which is located some distance outside Paris. What really intrigues Naomi is the fact that her mother has never been to France or so she claims. So why does she have the picture in her possession and on such prominent display and what is the significance of the property?
Naomi’s interest is instantly piqued. She is aware that her mother, Helga, was born in Germany but she refuses to talk about anything to do with the war or her time spent there. Therefore, she summarises that her experiences must have been horrific and that she suffered greatly. She knows that her mother was always a stickler for the truth and about being open and clear with people so why the need for secrecy? She is determined to get to the bottom of things as this is very much her heritage too. She needs to know about the past in order to move on with her own future and so she sets about digging up the past which Helga wants firmly buried. Helga is standoffish when confronted over the picture and to be honest I couldn’t blame her. If something which created such fear happened to you and has left such long and impactful memories that you want kept firmly to the back of your mind then that is where they should stay. I think she was horrified that Naomi was edging further to the truth through her investigations and that she would more than likely would have to confront what she had kept hidden for so long.Even though she would want the opposite to happen.
For me, there was just the right balance between Naomi finding out things in the modern setting and the reader learning about Helga’s experiences in the war. One didn’t dominate the other and everything that we learned from Helga fed well into what Naomi was going through on an emotional level. I loved that Naomi wasn’t afraid to push her mother when needed but that she also knew when to step back a little when things were becoming too much when she could see that Helga was becoming upset and starting to isolate herself even from her good friend Kitty. Naomi was astute in that she knew when to give her mother space to breathe and to contemplate. It was as if she sensed that with time the truth would come to the fore and when it does it will bring a tear to your eye especially seen as if one thing had not occurred than the overall result could have been so very different. There just seemed to be such a sense of injustice about the whole thing.
1939 and Helga lives in Berlin with her twin sister Ruth and her parents. Her father is a tailor who has his own shop and the family are fairly comfortable. But times are changing and new laws have come into force curtailing the freedom of Jews. They are made to wear a yellow star on their clothing which identifies them as being Jewish. The twins are forced to stop attending their school and are moved to a school which only Jews can attend. Soon even the right to an education is taken from them and they must remain at home. Their father’s shop is attacked on Kristallnacht and his livelihood is taken from him with him being reduced to take in some small amounts of tailoring work at home. Evil sweeps through the city and infects the hearts of their neighbours and friends and the twins lives are altered forever. None more so when their beloved mother leaves one night to get medicine and never returns. Their father is distraught and doesn’t know how to carry on with the situation for Jews gradually deteriorating around them. But he must find a way to get his remaining family members to safety before the worst could possibly befall them.
What follows is an incredible story of loss, bravery, courage and sacrifice and to go into much detail regarding Helga and Ruth would really spoil the story. Suffice to say they go on an incredible journey which they should never have had to undertake. Both show great maturity for their age given that they are only ten and they are experiencing untold horrors and suffering. It’s a cruel act of fate that rips their family apart and I thought it was even crueller that when they thought that they had potentially reached safety it was snatched from underneath them. The further Helga’s story is revealed you gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of why she kept things secret from Naomi. Guilt has eaten away at her and as a reader you realise that this feeling will never leave her unless she can get everything that happened off her chest and in doing so she can finally be free. The Forgotten Children reminded me how much I enjoy the writing of Ann Bennett. It’s a heart wrenching story full of love, loss and devotion and one that will stay with you long after you have read the final word.
No comments:
Post a Comment