Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Ever since the Nazis came to power, violence has spread through the city Esther Spielmann once called home. Each night she prays her family will be spared. But when her husband and father are murdered alongside fellow Jews during Kristallnacht, she has no choice but to send her beloved son, Sascha, to safety.
Esther’s heart breaks as she watches his thin legs trembling in the cold as he is ushered with the other crying children towards the Kindertransport. As the train leaves in a cloud of smoke, she thinks of the painting of the two of them hanging in their house. In it, they are tightly embracing and laughing, everything just as it should be. She vows that she will hold him like this once again. But has Esther made a promise she can’t possibly keep?
Each day the hope of finding Sascha burns like a flame in Esther’s chest. The war has taken everything from her, including the painting of her and her beloved son. Then one day the guards come. This time it is Esther who must get on a train. But unlike Sascha, Esther is not being carried to safety. She has heard whispers of the horrors of the concentration camps. But knows she must do everything in her power to survive…
When Esther hears word that her painting might have been found, hope of finding Sascha blooms once more in her chest. In the ashes of war, can she make her way back to her beloved son? And if they do meet again, will either of them be prepared for what they find?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Train That Took You Away and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
I’ve read and enjoyed everything that Catherine Hokin has written. She’s a brilliant writer and at this stage I don’t even bother to read the blurb beforehand I just dive straight into the story. The title for this new story, The Train That Took You Away, suggested to me it would be about someone being taken away on a train perhaps to a concentration camp during World War Two or someone going away to safety. I presumed it would be something along these lines but boy did I get a lot more than I had bargained for and Catherine has written an absolute stunner of a book.
It was so brilliantly plotted and devised with superb character development throughout and I was gripped and deeply invested from the beginning right until I read the very last word. There are four distinct parts to the story with such a clear beginning, middle and end which I always tell my pupils they have to have when writing a story. Often the lines between these three parts can become blurred but here they were apparent and in a way they divided the story into the past, present and some what into the future. OK, initially I did find the part changes slightly abrupt in that they occurred and the timeline jolted forward a bit and then went back to develop some details or give a recap. I felt I didn’t want the recap as I could read between the lines and would rather the story would have pushed forward but then I realised the recaps were brief but necessary and I valued their inclusion.
The Train That Took You Away is expansive in its scope and begins in August 1936. We see Hitler’s rise to power as leader of the Socialist Party and how the lives of the Jewish population were curtailed and the noose tightened around them. This first section really helped provide the background to the story that would unfold and there were several characters to become familiar with as well as becoming accustomed to the developing social, political and cultural scene at the time. Yes, there might have been a lot of detail but everything deserved its place in the story and really above all else it was interesting and fascinating and helped the reader understand the motivations, thoughts and emotions of all the characters. It also showed how the characters were forced to radically change and adapt to the horrors that were occurring around them and how their lives, personalities and family situations were altered for many years.
Esther runs an art gallery in Berlin and is married to Caspar and they have a son called Sascha. Esther is from a wealthy family as her father Albert runs the bank where her husband works. She is a woman with a head for business. She is the one person in this book along with Sascha who I felt went through the most radical and awful life experiences and all because she is Jewish. Details were given as to the laws, rules, regulations and restrictions that were enforced upon the Jewish population. The details of which I won’t go into here because there were so many and I’m sure fans of historical fiction will already be familiar with them. Suffice to say Esther and her family suffer a fall from grace and I don’t like using that expression but that is what I can liken it to. Although it is forced upon them rather than being of their own making.
Kristallnacht sees both Esther’s husband and father murdered, and it leaves her with no choice but to accept a place for Sascha on the Kindertransport offering safety in England. What a brave and courageous thing to do. Knowing that you will be all alone in a city and country where you are detested and not wanted where a deliberate separation of one group from another is occurring. With all her resources and her home taken away from her and with visa applications closing, Esther is stuck in a situation where there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Esther was a remarkable woman. She made the sacrifice to get her son to safety and how heart wrenching it must have been to send away your son not knowing would they ever be reunited. Once war broke out her situation deteriorated even further and she is taken to a concentration camp. I had never heard of the camp that she was taken to and given I read so much historical fiction at times you can become immune to reading some of the atrocities that occurred at the camps. But I was appalled to read the barracks were built over Jewish burial grounds with the headstones being used as paving stones for roads and paths. One other incident mentioned as well, I can’t even write about it was so horrific. Esther throughout shows her tenacity, grit, determination, strength, bravery and courage and it was the thoughts of her beloved Sascha that kept her going. I desperately hoped that they would be reunited.
Once the war is over there is a long path to thread in order to try and achieve this and the way the last section of the story unfolded was excellent and really tied all the strands of the story together very well. Sascha has his own chapters every now and again detailing his life in England I felt this was an essential part to the story as it provided a contrast to the life Esther was enduring in Germany. It also showed how he changed and how he viewed the situation he was in and what he thought of his mother and what she did for him. There were just the right amount of chapters from his perspective as I’ll be honest and say that I preferred reading about Esther and Amalie.
For ages, I was thinking how on earth does Amalie fit into the whole occasion. Yes, there are slight similarities between herself and Esther because they are both very interested in art. But why was she in the story? Would a link emerge between the pair and if it did how would it affect the overall plot? But I needn’t have worried because Catherine Hokin knew exactly where she was taking her characters and the links did appear in the last section and how things came together were brilliant, touching and emotional. Amalie is a worker and her passion for art shines through from every aspect of the story that she features in. She is steadfast for the most but also has an impulsive streak that could get her into trouble. At times, I felt she forgot the bigger picture as she was so hell bent on her on personal mission and in one way that wasn’t a bad thing but on the other it was leading her into very dangerous territory that could result in the worst befalling her.
Amalie is an art conservator from England but is half German on her mother’s side and had spent summers in Germany with her grandparents. She is working at the national gallery in Berlin overhauling some of their conservation methods. As trouble brews as Hitler comes to power, Amalie had her head stuck in the clouds and wasn’t fully aware of the bigger picture or the dangers that would come with it. Once war is declared she finally heeds her parents warnings and returns to England but given she has so much knowledge of Berlin and the art world her expertise is soon required in developing a map of where the Nazi’s would have hidden all the valuable works of art that that they plundered. We see Amalie’s character develop and change as the war progresses and concludes and she too experiences trauma and heartbreak but it’s only when she can get back on German soil again that a new side to her starts to emerge. It was fascinating reading about all the artworks and masterpieces that went missing and needed to be found again. Admittedly, I find art boring but Catherine made it absorbing and interesting and Amalie’s enthusiasm became infectious. As for how she connects to Esther you’ll have to pick up this marvellous story to find out.
I know it’s very early on in the year but The Train That Took You Away is already a potential runner for one of my books of the year. It’s Catherine Hokin at her very best and I sense despite the subject matter that she thoroughly enjoyed writing this book as she has given us a story that readers won’t forget in a hurry. I was hooked throughout at the masterful storytelling and the characters that I came to deeply care for and would have no hesitation in recommending this book
No comments:
Post a Comment