Reviewer June Maffin:Living on an island in British Columbia, Canada, Dr. Maffin is a neophyte organic gardener, eclectic reader, ordained minister (Anglican/Episcopal priest) and creative spirituality writer/photographer with a deep zest for life. Previously, she has been grief counselor, broadcaster, teacher, journalist, television host, chaplain and spiritual director with an earned doctorate in Pastoral Care (medical ethics i.e. euthanasia focus). Presently an educator, freelance editor, blogger, and published author of three books, her most recent (Soulistry-Artistry of the Soul: Creative Ways to Nurture your Spirituality) has been published in e-book as well as paperback format and a preview can be viewed on YouTube videos. Founder of Soulistry™ she continues to lead a variety of workshops and retreats connecting spirituality with creativity and delights in a spirituality of play. You can find out more about June by clicking on her Web Site.
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-5107-1805-0
Author: Jake Wallis Simons
Publisher: Skyhorse
Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-5107-1805-0
Fourteen year old Rosa Klein, her older brother Heinrich, younger sister Hedi and parents Otto and Inga are a loving, happy, financially secure family. Life for the Klein family in many respects was idyllic - until the Nuremberg Laws against Jews began to be enforced in Germany and their lives changed dramatically.
As Jews, their
passports became invalid and try as they might to seek emigration
visas, it was too late. When word came their way about the
Kindertransport program (where one child per family could leave
Germany if a sponsor in England could be found), an agonizing
decision brought Otto and Inge to the realization that Rosa was the
most likely able to arrange visas for the rest of the family.
As Rosa steps on the train, life as she knew it ended as she and
other children on the Kindertransport (including a baby smuggled on
the train that Rosa tries to hide from the Nazi soldiers) left
families, homes, friends and familiar language behind them, beginning
a treacherous journey to a new land and new life. For Rosa,
that meant life with the Kremer family: Gerald (her father’s
cousin), his wife Mimi and Samuel, their eighteen year old son in
London, England.
Rosa’s loneliness in the new country
without her parents is frightening and beyond imaginable as she tries
to balance finding work, cleaning house for Mrs. Kremer, and
constantly seeking visas for her family so they could leave war-torn
Germany and join her in England. An unexpected intimate
relationship with Samuel Kremer leads to a pregnancy that is ended
against her will and Rosa flees the Kremer home. Haunted by the
infrequent and eventual cessation of letters from her parents, what
might be happening to her family in Germany, and memories of her
abortion, Rosa withdraws and fills her days and life with study,
ultimately achieving her life-long dream to become a nurse.
Overall,
lengthy sentences, unbelievably long paragraphs, little “white”
space on many of the actual pages (publisher trying to save money?)
and the lack of quotation marks throughout the book make it difficult
to read and follow. The conclusion of the book (describing what
happened to the baby that Rosa hid on the Kindertransport could have
transformed what became simply an romantic novel genre with
historical overtones into a novel of great strength with dramatic
historical relevance. Sadly, it did not.
The tale of “The English German Girl” had great possibilities, but the ‘English Rosa’ part of the book is simply a rushed contrived love story with little of the strength of the first half of the book as the author wasn’t able to continue the believable story of the ‘German Rosa’ (with its well-developed plot line, excellent imagery and strong character development) into the second half of the book for this reviewer.