Natasha Solomon
Plume/Penguin
January 2012 / 978452297647
Historical Fiction / England WWII
Amazon
Reviewed
by Barbara Buhrer
1938 was not
a safe time for a Jew to be in Nazi-held Vienna. The Landau family
is preparing to flee. Elder daughter, Margot, leaves for a university
in California with her husband. The father, Julian, an eminent author,
and his wife, Anna, a famous opera singer, have visas for New York
with the Metropolitan Opera. There is no Visa possible for 17 year
old Ewlise. She applies to an English refugee organization which
finds domestic positions for the refugees. Elise is fortunate to
obtain one and is to go to Tyneford on the east coast of England
as a maid in the manor house of the Rivers. She brings with her
only a string of her mother's pearls sewed in the hem of her dress,
a copy of her father's unpublished work stuffed in a viola and a
copy of Mrs. Breton's Book of Household Management.
She becomes
a member of the staff in the household of the Rivers. There she
performs tasks far from anything she had ever done in her Vienna
society home. She worries about the fate of her parents with no
news of their departure. When England declares War she is forced
to change her name to avoid being classified as an enemy alien.
A young son in the household, Kit, returns from the university and
they form a close relationship. Then the war invades their lives.
There is tragedy, heartbreak, loss. Only with time can they rebuild
their lives.
This is a poignant
love story set in a country home in England during World War II.
The author has given a feeling in time and place. This reader had
a sense of being there and experiencing all the action. The environment
is described in vivid and picturesque detail....making the reader
wishing to be there.
This is a story
of love, family, courage, tragedy and renewal. The characters are
richly drawn with much of the story told in the first person. We
learn many of the subtleties of the English social system of that
time and the living conditions of the staff in an English manor
house. There is historical detail of a family's trouble in the time
of Hitler's rise to power.
Highly recommended.
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