Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

When I purchased this book, I expected it to be about Jews who were able to survive in Germany during the WWII with the help of a Nazi soldier. I was wrong. The story is about a German woman who did what she had to do to ensure the survival of herself and her young daughter while still trying to help the prisoners at the nearby Buchenwald camp. Even though it wasn't what I had expected, I found myself looking forward to reading more each evening.

The story switches between the present day and the war years. From reading the story of the war years, you know that at some point Anna finally told her daughter Trudy about life during the war but you don't find out what made Anna decide to open up until the last few pages. It's a wonderful surprise at the end.

In the "Acknowledgements", the author makes a passing comment that this story is historical fiction. I found it to be very believable in part due to the author's writing style and in part due to the fact that very little of the history is fictional.

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