What I’m Reading: The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

I just finished listening to the audio book The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival by Louise Murphy.  I grabbed this from my on line library.  I had search the site and typed in WWII to see what would come up.  This book, along with dozens I’ve already listened to were listed.  I thought I would give this one try.

The book was good.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a million times, I prefer first person writing.  I get more into the books if they are written that way.  This one sadly wasn’t.  I think had it been, I would have liked it better but even with that, I did like it.  The book tells the same story from so many perspectives and it’s hard to believe that they could all come together but they do.  It had to have taken lots of concentration and forethought on the authors part to mesh everything.

Here’s what Amazon had to say:“In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed “Hansel” and “Gretel.” They wander in the woods until they are taken in by Magda, an eccentric and stubborn old woman called “witch” by the nearby villagers. Magda is determined to save them, even as a German officer arrives in the village with his own plans for the children. Louise Murphy’s haunting novel of journey and survival, of redemption and memory, powerfully depicts how war is experienced by families and especially by children.”

Amazon readers give the book 4.5 stars….I’d have to agree.  The book kept my interest and I kept wanting to know how everything was going to come together.  I’ll be looking for more books by this author.