‘Are you leaving?’

The novel opens in Kraków, Poland in 1939. Jewish families are starting to leave. By the time the wealthy Oderfeldt family decides to flee, it is too late for them to travel together, too late for them to take their possessions. Of all the possessions they must leave behind, Alicia’s most prized possession is a painting. It is a portrait of her that her father commissioned, painted by Jozef Pienta. The family: parents Adam and Anna, sisters Karolina and Alicia, are separated by the war.
Anna, Karolina, and Alicia travel together, trying to find refuge and safety. Their life of luxury in Kraków becomes a distant memory. After the war ends, Alicia wants to recover the painting.

There are several characters with different stories in this novel and, sadly, not all endings are happy. Once I started reading, I found it difficult to put the novel down. The contrasts between the Odefeldt’s life in Kraków and the indignities and horrors of war, the courage shown by Anna, Karolina and Alicia. The significance of the painting to Alicia, and the journey to find it and reconnect with others is the heart of the story. Recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
#BRPreview

I did enjoy the overall story here but I also found it difficult at times to remember which character name was which, and I feel like this made it hard to follow at points. I also didn’t really get the connection between the two characters involved in the main romance which is sort of the whole point of the story, so that also let it down.

Okay I begin with my only negative opinion on the writing style. When we had the POV of the mother and we would randomly we have the conscious of the neighbour? It was bizarre. It happens throughout the entire book where we would randomly get a line about what the neighbour, Janina, was thinking. There just needed to be more cohesiveness in the text. That one negative aside, I commend the author on capturing the feelings of disbelief, hysteria, horror, the list of emotions could go on, that would have been felt by those who in labour and concentration camps across Europe.

It was interesting to read a story written about a Jewish Polish family who essentially buried their head in the sand when the events leading up to WW2 were occurring and they still didn’t seem to grasp the gravity of their situation until towards the end of the book. There would have been families like this in Europe, the ones who didn’t flee when things started to get bad for Jews in Germany after 1933, the ones who stuck around even after Germany invaded and they knew about the pogroms occurring within Germany. So I really liked this aspect of reading the book, however with that being said I found it really hard to connect with Anna, the mother, who was so dismissive of the people who helped her and seemed so ungrateful. I guess she was grappling with her new reality of being a refugee and not the wealthy lady she was in Krakow but it did annoy me throughout and I found I didn’t connect with her character at all. Also her daughter was such a brat. I think it did capture the absolute hysteria that the Jews, Poles, Gypsies and other people felt who were taken to various camps over Europe during WW2. We see the family go to a camp in Russia, as this was a common occurrence in areas occupied by the Soviets to take Poles and Jewish people to camps. However, as mentioned earlier, I wasn’t able to connect with the family this storyline followed due to their characters being portrayed the way they were.

I felt the ending was super rushed as well and wanted more detail about the years we didn’t get. The ending was sad but also beautiful ( read it and it makes sense why I say beautiful) and showed the reality of the camps, German and Russian alike.

Oh I really loved this book - it was a slow burner to begin with, as the author laid the foundations of all of the interpersonal relationships. However, when I finished the book I just sat with it for a little while to gather my thoughts and feelings.

The first section is pre-Second World War and it deals with the wealthy Oderfelt family, and the events after they hire a young artist, Jozef, to do a painting of their youngest daughter Alicia. Alicia is somewhat spoiled and her older sister Karolina is hidden in the shade of her younger sister. While Jozef paints Alicia, he is privvy to the goings on in the Oderfelt household as tensions across Europe rise and the Jewish Oderfelts begin to understand the danger that they may be in. How Jozef reacts to different situations is interesting, and some of the things he overhears or sees, in terms of Anti-Semitism, are truly shocking and disgusting.

The next part of the book follows members of the family, and Jozef, as they flee, spend time in concentration camps and lose their loved ones.

What really pulled at my emotions was the fact that we are omniscient readers and can see when there are missed opportunities for the family to reunite, or for Jozef to find Karolina again.

The whole plot just reminded me that, not only was the war itself tragic, but the impact afterwards was felt for many years and generations. I felt this deep sadness at the end as things could have gone so much better for our characters had events been even just slightly different.

I agree with some reviewers in that a lot of time was spent on the initial section of the book but, for me, this is what contributed to my emotional reaction to subsequent events.

I look forward to reading more by this author.