THE SEVENTH CROSS by Anna Seghers (Translated from German)

First published in the US in 1942, this novel was an abridged version of the original written by German born Jewish woman Anna Seghers. Her story of escape from Germany to France in 1933, then again from France in 1940 to Mexico and finally to America is worthy of a book in itself. As is the miracle of survival of the manuscript. Of four copies she made only one made it to publication in the US, and even then it was posted from France, the others destroyed or disappeared.  In 1944 a film starring Spencer Tracy was one of the few movies of the era to deal with a European concentration camp.

This latest publishing of the novel is the first unabridged version in English. As we continue to be deluged with both fiction and non-fiction, movies, TV series about the war, the Holocaust, the horrific and terrible cost, pain and loss of everything, this novel remains as relevant and important as it was 70 plus years ago.

George Heisler is prisoner in a concentration camp near a town in Germany. Like the author, George is a communist, hence his imprisonment. Along with six others, one day he escapes. This is the story of that escape, how the others are caught, how George evades capture, how he learns who to trust, who not to trust, how living on your wits is almost fatal work. The seven crosses are a creation of the ruthless and sadistic camp commander. As each prisoner is caught he is dragged back to the camp and tied to the cross erected for the purpose. Day after day the seventh cross remains empty.

Over the course of a very desperate week George returns to the town he came from - Mainz, where he has both good and bad luck in getting help for his continuing evasion from the Gestapo and SS. For the risk lies that he will be betrayed by any one of the people he meets, or that his contacts are in turn betrayed, or make an error that puts them and all their families at risk. It is a perilous world. But as we know, us humans can be capable of great risk taking for another person, and great acts of kindness. That George makes any progress at all is a miracle, but the biggest miracle is what he discovers about himself.

This novel is exquisitely written in its detail of daily life for the average German over this time. There is much putting the head in the sand amongst the citizens, the constant worry that ears are listening and possibly misinterpreting conversations, asides, who one is seen with. The SA, SS, Gestapo and Hitler Youth are everywhere, there is endless fear that one may put a foot wrong. That George successfully evades all this is marvellous, but right up till the very last page it could all go wrong.

This is neither a hard read nor an easy read. It is very detailed in the minutiae of daily life, there are a lot of characters, most peripheral to the actual plot which makes it hard to remind oneself as to why they are there! A list at the beginning is not really long enough or detailed enough about all the characters. It is a small issue, as the story of George is really what carries the whole thing along. It would be great to see a remake of the 1944 movie to coincide with the republication of the novel.

THE BOOK-SHOP OF THE BROKEN HEARTED by Robert Hillman

It is 1968, in Hometown, central Victoria. Not a lot happens here in this farming/rural community. The population is stable, everyone knows everyone else's business, families have lived here, either in town or on the farms for some generations. Newcomers are a curious and suspicious phenomenon. Tom Hope farms the land his uncle left him. It is typical Aussie farm land - dry, dusty, sparse, requiring hard work and dedication. He hasn't had much luck in the love department, with his wife Trudy leaving him, returning with a baby (not Tom's), leaving him with baby Peter, then returning a few years later to claim him for good. Tom is broken hearted. A life of continuous disappointment and loss.

Hannah Babel is Hungarian, a survivor of Auschwitz, the apocalypse that was post war Europe, and the anti communist uprising in Budapest in 1956. She also is broken hearted, having lost two husbands and her young son. Not to mention the rest of her family. Unlike Tom she is absolutely unable to internalise any of her pain, heartbreak, loss, but she has the most amazing spirit and energy. Having arrived in Hometown she is determined this is going to be her new beginning - she is going to open a book shop and will not rest until she has sold 'twenty- five thousand, the number of books burnt in Berlin on May 10th, 1933'.  Unsurprisingly the likes of Hannah has never been seen in Hometown - she is a source of much intrigue, gossip, some cattiness, and curiosity.  She enlists Tom to help her fit out the shop, a love affair blossoms, things look to be on the up for Tom and Hannah much to the amusement of the locals.

All good things take time and with wild differences between these two, derailment is not far away. The day comes when the deep grief that Hannah suffered on the loss of her son confronts her with the need for young Peter to return to Tom's care. What will she do? What will Tom do? Such is the skill of the author that you sympathise and empathise with both Tom and Hannah. And as for Peter....  The dilemma - both emotionally and morally - is so delicately handled, so carefully revealed and explained that you keep reading because you really have no idea how it is all going to work out. Although you secretly expect that is will be ok in the end.....

I read this over a wet weekend, it is heart breaking, but as with so much of the fiction that has come out of the stories of WWII, it is full of hope, determination, and joy. Both Tom and Hannah are wonderful characters, very real, flawed, disagreeable, at odds with each other - imagine laconic rural Aussie farmer with firebrand Holocaust survivor. I hope there is a movie on the cards somewhere. 

WARLIGHT by Michael Ondaatje

Oh, how I loved this. It wouldn't really matter what the story line was as the writing is so exquisite, expressive and wonderful. 'The English Patient' is one of my all time favourites, expectations are always nervously high for subsequent novels, but you can rest easy, as seen by its long-list nomination for this year's Man Booker Prize. 

The title refers to the half light, the dimness, twilight, uncertain and slightly wild place that London was during the war years, and after. Lives lost, people displaced, lives turned upside down. In 1945 Nathaniel is 14 years old and his sister Rachel is 16. They live with their parents in a house in a street in London. One day the parents announce that they are going away to live in Singapore for a period of time for the father's work. The two children would be left in the care of a guardian. The shock and disbelief never really goes away for either Rachel and Nathaniel, this desertion at the core of their psyche for at least the duration of the novel, and probably beyond. The desertion turns into a form of betrayal when the two discover that their mother never actually left, but where she did go remains a mystery. 

Their guardian, a man they call The Moth, on other hand, is a most interesting character, as are the various other strange assortment of people who become regular visitors in the family home. The Darter, Marsh Felon, Olive Lawrence - who are these people, what do they have to do with the absent parents? Nathaniel forms a particularly strong attachment to The Darter, accompanying him on various treks around London in the dead of night, as deliveries are made, quiet conversations are held. Although parentless, Nathaniel and Rachel find themselves not really parentless after all. 

The descriptions of London at this time are outstanding, as is the view of a young boy at the strange life he is finding himself in. He is half adult/half child, the writing capturing perfectly this half formed world that teenagers live in.

The years pass, the children become adults, the secrets of these years are discovered. Which I will not reveal! Suffice to say that not only is the story unusual, wonderful and in its own way satisfying, it is the writing, the characters, the how and why of things that happen that is quite simply divine. The author is a genius of the English language. I will be buying my own copy, and it will join 'The English Patient' on my shelf.