Win 22 Britannia Road Conceived By Amanda Hodgkinson Shared As Electronic Format

a tragedy what a beautiful written Second Worldwar story! and that boy, Aurek, Currently I search for books about World War II and impact of it on what Tom Brokaw dubbed, “The Greatest Generation”.
In my quest, I search for books that look at different aspects, countries and ethnic groups impacted by this war.

“Britannia Road” by Amanda Hodgkinson has a similar tone to another book I recently enjoyed, “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”.
Since my weakness is history, I am joyful when I learn something new about history that escaped my limited education.

Janusz Nowak and his wife Silvana marry and have a baby they name Aurek, Janusz joins the Polish Army when the threat of Hitlers invasion is imminent, Silvana is left in Warsaw and experiences part of the German occupation before she escapes to live with Januszs parents.

Nothing turns out as plannedJanusz is waylaid on his quest and so are Silvana and their son, Silvana and her Aurek become woodland creatures while Janusz travels undercover trying to find an army to join, Finally he succeeds and ends up in England where he embraces everything English, After the war, Janusz asks the Red Cross to find his wife and son and they do!!
Reunited in England, Silvana, Janusz and Aurek try to rebuild a family, a life and a future.
Will their past secrets and sins hinder and destroy this dream Will past and possibly future romances ruin this family
While reading this book on the beach, I was seated next to my friend who was reading Tina Feys “Bossy Pants.
” While my friend was laughing and reading excerpts from the book for me, I was living with Silvana in the Polish forests, skinning and roasting rats and breastfeeding my baby.
However I would not have traded reading this book for these laughs,
This is a tender and sweet book with brutal images of a brutal war,
So themes, I love themes:
, What actually makes what we define as a family
, Can people move beyond past loves that are dead
, What makes a neighborhood a melting pot
, Why do some busy bodies try to ruin others lives
This author will be running a writers workshop I'm attending in October and I was very eager to read her debut novel.
The verdict Well, it was good, But not great. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't engrossed by it, There were no images that will forever stick with me, which was a little annoying considering the multitude of opportunities her plot gave her for strong imagery.
She seems to write 'faster' than I do, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but some incredibly intense moments lost a lot of their impact due to her emphasis on brevity.
Don't get me wrong I, too, value wellplaced silence, Eli Wiesel's 'Night' taught me power of leaving things out, There were times, though, where Hodgkinson's skipping over some dramatic moments made me want to grab my pencil and play around in the margins.


I wanted it to be Anne Michael's 'Fugitive Pieces' but it wasn't,

The most telling sign for me was that this book sat next to my bed for over a week with around ten pages to go, and I just didn't really feel like picking it up.
And not because I didn't want to say goodbye to the characters, . . War destroys lives. People make choices that don't always make sense, And most of us would do whatever they could to survive,
When Poland is invaded Janusz leaves to join the Army and makes absolutely no preparations for his wife and newborn.
He does not get them to his parents, He just leaves. Silvana seems to go into

some type of protective shell and does nothing, It reminded me of when I was diagnosed with cancer, Somehow your mind shuts down and you hear people but they sound so far off not really connected to you.
It is in that bubble that Silvana goes through the war, She just floats through the War just stumbling around and doing whatever it takes to make it through another day.
She makes no plans, no real decisions and just rolls with whatever happens, It is exactly how I felt when I was in my own War with another invasive enemy,
When Janusz and Silvana reunite, they don't want to share the secrets of how they survived, It seems so shameful to them, Janusz wants a perfect life now that blot out his horrible life, Silvana wants to be safe, Unfortunately, the secrets don't allow them to bond or heal, It's the unveiling of those secrets that almost destroy them,
To me this is a book of survival, What would you do when you face the unimagable What would you do to survive How would you cope




I loved this book! Heartwrenching with a good ending.
I give this onestars, This is a powerful and moving, but sad story about a family torn apart by war, The story moves back and forth in time preWWII, during the war, and after the war, location Poland, France, crossing the channel, and England and between three characters wife/mother, husband/father and child/son.
Despite the fact that the story involves very painful topics death of family members, rape, loss of loved ones, separation, witnessing violent deaths, etc.
the story was not depressing, I won this book from First Reads hear on goodreads, but I chose to listen to the narrated version instead.
I believe the story is a good first start from this author, I think the transition from each characters point of view, was done well but perhaps could have been done better.
I did not like the male protagonist, I thought he was weak and easily influenced, but ultimately he does right by his family, I also thought that the silence and secrets between the reunited characters was overly dramatic, I just did not believe the level of secrecy and lack of intimacy between them but then I have never survived a war while separated from my spouse.
I was completely surprised by the twist in the story and the revelation still breaks my heart, I am giving thisstars, while I think it is a,star book because the story left me emotionally moved and thinking about the characters, I believe if a reader is a fan of literary fiction, interested in the postWWII time period, or interested in stories of surviving and moving on then this book will be enjoyed.
It isnt the best book I have ever read, but it is good, Silvana and sevenyearold Aurek are reunited with Janusz, her husband, after World War II, He has settled in England after the war, and his family was found in a refugee camp, Silvana and Janusz have been through separate terrible wartime experiences when Poland was invaded by both German and Russian soldiers.
Janusz traveled to safe houses to finally get to England, Silvana and Aurek lived in the forests of Poland, and Aurek has only known a wild existence, Their adjustment is difficult, and the secrets of those wartime years are slowly revealed as the story unfolds,

I enjoyed the beginning and the end of the book the most, with the middle losing a bit of momentum.
The book makes the reader understand that in wartime people may be forced by circumstances to make quick imperfect decisions.
Britannia Roadprezintă drama unei familii distrusă de război,
Janusz și Silvana sunttineri căsătoriți și proaspăt deveniți părinți, ce locuiesc în Polonia tocmai când războiul se apropie.
Janusz se inroleaza în armată, convins că asta este datoria lui de bun cetățean doar că are loc o întâmplare care îl transformă în dezertor.
Întâlnește alțidezertori care îl conving să vina cu ei și astfel Janusz ajunge în Franța.
Acolo manat de boală ajunge la o ferma unde o cunoaște pe Helene de care se și îndrăgostește.
În tot acest timp Silvana și Aurek, fiul lor, simt din plin atrocitățile războiului, Nu mult dupa plecarea lui Janusz, Varsovia este invadată iar Silvana se decide să plece, Plecarea nu este deloc ușoară, Silvana trece prin multe iar până la urmă ajunge să se refugieze în pădure.
Silvana și Aurek sunt supravietuitori, au învățat să trăiască în cele mai grele condiții și au creat o legătură puternică între ei.

Dupaani Janusz da de urma sotiei și a fiului și reusesc astfel să se regăsească în Marea Britanie.
Ei încearcă sasi refacă viața dar nimic nu este simplu și usor, ei nu mai sunt aceeași, li se văd urmele adânci lăsate de razboi, mai ales în randul Silvanei și al lui Aurek care par doi sălbatici.
Janusz reuseste să se angajeze la o fabrica din zona, munceste mult iar meritele îi sunt recunoscute, El isi doreste ca totul să revină la normal, sa devină o familie, de aceea luptă ca și sotia și fiul lor să se adapteze noilor condiții de trai.
Insistă ca Aurek să meargă la școală iar Silvanei îi găsește un post dar cei doi par să nu se acomodeze.
Chiar și atunci când Aurek îl tratează ca pe un inamic, Janusz nu renunță ci se inarmeaza cu optimism și lupta să se apropie de el și sai ofere iubire și o educație.

Aceasta este o carte despre supraviețuitori, despre oameni care deși au îndurat multe, foametea, boala, razboiul, suferință și disperare, au reușit să rămână în viață.
Revenirea la normalitate este grea sau poate imposibilă pentru unii, nici pentru acestepersonaje nu este ușoară mai ales cand stau atâtea secrete între ei.

Finalul a fost întrun ton optimist , nu ma asteptam chiar la acel final dupa turnura pe care au luato evenimentele.

O carte interesantă, mia placut!,,