The Last Train to London

Finished January 15
The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton

This novel is set mostly in the Netherlands and Austria. In the Netherlands, the main character is Truus (Geertruida) Wijsmuller-Meijer, a woman who smuggled children out of Nazi Germany, and then out of other countries controlled by the Nazis, prior to and during the Second World War. She told the children that she was saving to call her Tante Truus, and although she longed for children of her own, she and her husband Joop never were blessed with them. Truus was a real life woman who did this work, and although she was taken prisoner a couple of times by the Nazis, she lived through the war and was held in high esteem and with great affection by the children she saved. While most of Truus' story is based in fact, some small liberties were taken for the purpose of the novel.
In Austria, we follow young Stephan Neuman, born into a wealthy Jewish family who made chocolates, as he turns sixteen, seventeen, and nears eighteen as his world falls apart when the Nazis take over Austria, his parents' business, and his home in Vienna. Here we also see his little brother Walter, who has a much-loved Peter Rabbit doll he takes almost everywhere with him. Stephen wants to be a writer, specifically a playwright, and his model is Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. One of Stephen's classmates is Zofie-Helene Perger, who is a mathematical prodigy and the daughter of journalists. Her father died mysteriously on a trip to Germany before the story begins, and her mother has continued the newspaper they owned even as her own life and liberty become threatened by the Nazis.
As we see Truus' mission to save children become more difficult and dangerous, we also see her determination and the special relationship she and her husband had that made her work possible. In Austria, we see how Stephen's world collapsed so quickly from one of privilege and opportunity to one where he had to struggle just to stay alive. We see his mother's determination to save her children, despite her own illness, and the trust of young Walter that things would be better. For Zofie, we see her determination to stay true to her friendship with Stephen even when their differences in religion divided them under the Nazi regime, and how she defied her grandfather, who was trying to protect her, in helping Stephen in the ways that she could.
Clayton brings these times to life, with all the emotion that the characters felt. A great read.

Austerlitz

Finished December 31
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald

This is another unusual novel. Despite being over 400 pages, there are no chapters or even paragraphs to provide a natural stopping point when reading. The story is told by an unnamed narrator, and covers many years beginning in 1967 when he meets Jacques Austerlitz in Antwerp. The two strike up an acquaintance and meet several times again over the years.
In the early meetings they discuss architecture (Austerlitz is an architectural historian) and other impersonal subjects, but later Austerlitz begins to tell his story. He was raised in Wales by foster parents who gave him a new name and never discussed his history, but when his foster father dies while he is away at boarding school he is told his real name and reverts to it following school. He is mentored by one of his teachers and does well, and it is only after a sort of breakdown that he allows himself to investigate his past, discovering that he was sent to England in 1939 from the Czech Republic on a Kindertransport at the age of four. He gradually traces his parents back to their disappearances during the war, undergoing a couple more mental breakdowns as he does so.
This story then is a story of listening to someone else tell his story, and the reader is reminded of that many times. There are also many photographs and drawings throughout the book, each relating to the text where it occurs in some ways, but unattributed and undescribed specifically. Some are referred to in the text, but not all. This begins to make the book seem more than a novel, bringing in elements of memoir, and travel.

Far to Go

Finished January 23
Far to Go by Alison Pick
This novel is set in Czechoslovakia at the beginning of the Second World War, when the Germans took over first Sudetenland and then the rest of the country. We look at things from the point of view of the young nanny for a well-off Jewish family. There is also a voice from the early twentieth century that we don't find out the identity of until the end of the book.
The story is a different voice and follows not only the arc of the German's in Czechoslovakia, but also the variety of responses to the German's presence. The nanny, Marta, has her own issues that influence her actions here. The small boy, Pepik, is put on the list for Kindertransport and manages to escape, but never sees his family or nanny again. His experience is something we hear about later in the book.
This is a sad book, but not in a manipulative way. We see a story that is based on real stories and real history and it is a learning experience as well as a rewarding tale.
Well told and researched.