Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

I found this book in Borders, and was intrigued, first of all by the cover- a young girl dressed in a red coat with fur collar, fur muff, bright white socks and fancy shoes, holding the hand of an older woman whose face cannot be seen.  They are standing in front of a bakery- Anyway, I found the book in the library- 478 pages, but I finished it within days, it was such a good read.

Anna Schlemmer lives in Weimar at the beginning of the war, and forms a relationship with a Jewish doctor, whom she later hides in her own home, and by whom she becomes pregnant.  He is discovered and disappears into Buchenwald, a prison camp near Weimar.  Anna flees from her father, hides for some time in a bakery, then becomes part of the household and gives birth to Trudi.

Fifty years later, Anna and Trudi are living together in America, brought  to Minnesota by an American soldier. Anna and Trudi have a difficult relationship, because Anna refuses to speak of her past.  Trudi, who is now a professor of German history, has only one piece of her own past: a family portrait of Anna, Trudi, and a Nazi officer, so she begins a search into the truth of her mother's life in Germany.

This novel depicts quite vividly the sacrifices that women made to protect themselves and , most especially, their children, and illustrates the difficulties that plague these survivors all their lives.

THE CELLIST OF SARAJEVO- Stephen Galloway

A beautiful city under siege, particularly from the snipers on the hills above it, is one of four characters in this novel - it's difficult to call it a novel, because we all saw these scenes unfold on television. How do people function from day-to-day in such times, travelling miles with water bottles around one's body, wondering what has become of one's neighbours, dreaming, if only for an instant, of things as they once were? This beautiful novel presents these questions, and the characters show us the answers. Three separate lives unfold, none of them particularly connected, except by the humanity they seek to maintain amidst such devastation.

 Lots of room here for discussion, and worth a second, more concentrated, look.

WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? by Kate Atkinson

Now, here's a really good book, one to get excited about!  On a hot day in the country, a six-year-old girl witnesses her family being murdered, and thirty years later, the killer is released from prison. Sixteen-year-old Reggie is a nanny for the baby son of a local doctor, DCI Louise Monroe is looking for a missing person, and Jackson Brodie, retired detective, is on a train going in the wrong direction.  All these lives, with their various misfortunes and mistakes , intersect, and the results are astonishing.  As one reviewer wrote:"(She) simply starts her story, grabs hold of the reader, and doesn't let go". I enjoyed all the characters in this book, most especially Reggie, who would make a wonderful friend in a crisis. And the writing is wonderful- she has a great feel for the ironies in life, and really engages the reader's senses. 

Apparently this Jackson Brodie appears in some of her other novels, so I'll be searching out some of them.  I had already taken note of one other title by Atkinson: Behind The Scenes At The Museum. 

Atkinson was born in York and now resides in Edinburgh.  The novel is set in a small town in Scotland.

Instances of the Number 3 by Salley Vickers

I came across this title some time ago, but not the author's name, and it was just by chance that I found it in the Large-Print section of the PCB library.

Peter Hansome, about 60, dies in a car accident, and shortly after his funeral, his widow, Bridget, contacts his mistress, Frances, and the two become friends, both watched over benevolently by a ghost.

Things are complicated somewhat by the arrival of Zahin, a young Iranian boy, on Bridget's doorstep, since Zahin seems to have been promised by Peter that he can come and live with Bridget.  He is so attentive to Bridget that she grows used to having him around, although there is something mysterious about him.

The author is a "trained analytical psychologist" who lectures on the connections among literature ( there are many references to Shakespeare), psychology, and religion. It's a very intelligently written story about an interesting, somewhat skewed, love triangle.

Quote from the Preface:

" It is said there were ancient schools of thought which held that the number 3 is unstable.  If the reasons for this belief were ever known they are lost in time....Whatever the case, it is a fact that three is a protean number: under certain conditions it will tend to collapse into two - or expand into four..."

Additions and Suggestions

First off, I must add Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible and Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance to my list of all-time favorites.

I spent 45 minutes today roaming around Borders, a beautiful book store near here, and I spotted some titles and authors I'd like to remember to look for at the library:

The Welsh Girl - Peter Ho Davie 

West of the Night - Isak Dinesen

Jenna Blum- can't remember the title.

MY ALL-TIME FAVORITES -

Gerry asked for a list of my all-time favorite books, and he's presently working his way through it.  Here they are in no particular order:

1.Captain Corelli's Mandolin- Louis de Bernieres

2. Power of One- Bryce Courtenay

3. Master Butcher's Singing Club - Louise Erdrich

4. A Prayer for Owen Meany- John Irving

5. The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak

6. The Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill

7. Colony of Unrequited Dreams- Wayne Johnston

8. No Great Mischief - Alistair MacLeod

9. Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden

10.Fall On Your Knees - Ann-Marie MacDonald.

11. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
12. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
13, We Were The Mulvaneys - Joyce Carol Oates
14. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski

IF I AM MISSING OR DEAD by Janine Latkus

I couldn't read this book.  I got about 25 pages into it, leafed through a few more, and decided I couldn't read it.  It's the story of a pair of sisters who suffer abuse both sexual and emotional from their father throughout their growing-up years, then seem to find the same type of person in their boyfriends, where the abuse becomes physical.  We know from the get-go that Amy, the little sister, dies at the hands of her husband, and the book's title comes from a letter she left for her other two sisters to find after her death.

Just too brutal, too predictable for me- my heart just breaks for them, and the helplessness they endured all through their lives- but I just couldn't continue reading it.  Too depressing...