A Faraway Island by Annika Thor

Twelve-year-old Stephanie (Stephie) Steiner and her seven-year-old sister Eleonore (Nellie) arrive in Goteberg, Sweden by train. They are part of a group of refugee children from Vienna, Austria. A lady escorts Stephie and Nellie along with the other children to a large waiting area where a lady from the local relief committee welcomes them. Each child's name is called and an adult comes forward to claim them. But Stephie and Nellie are taken by taxi to the harbor where a boat takes them to an island. 

There they are met at the dock by a woman who tells them her name is Alma Lindberg or Auntie Alma. Aunt Alma's home is "...a yellow wooden house with a glass-enclosed veranda."  She has two children, Elsa and John. Inside, Stephie and Nellie meet a stern-looking woman, Aunt Marta. Neither Stephie nor Nellie speak Swedish but they manage to learn a few words to understand what is happening.

After some milk and buns, Stephie leaves with Aunt Marta, causing Nellie to be very upset as their mother had promised they would stay together. Stephie rides on Aunt Marta's bike, far along the island road to "...an isolated house, pressed up close to a stony cliff..." with a red boathouse by the water's edge. To Stephie, the house feels like it is at the "...end of the world." Stephie's room is small with a sloping ceiling and a small window. She has a bed, dresser and table but no books or art except for a picture of Jesus. Not long after Stephie settles in, Uncle Evert arrives. Stephie immediately feels a connection to him as they try to talk in a mixture of German and Swedish. 

Stephie and Nellie, along with Aunt Alma and her children spend their summer days at the beach swimming. Stephie doesn't swim however because she only has an old black woolen swimsuit that Aunt Marta has given her. When Aunt Alma's husband, Uncle Evert returns, Stephie learns that he is a fisherman who has a boat named Diana. Aunt Alma's husband,Sigurd is a member of the crew along with a boy named Per-Erik and four others.

Stephie continues to write letters to her parents describing a pleasant life in Sweden so her parents won't worry. Meanwhile she and Nellie wait and hope their parents can leave Austria. However, with the start of World War II, Austria is now at war as it is part of the German Reich. One day Vera Hedberg, a girl with red hair, shows Stephie and Nellie where to pick blackberries. This ends in a disaster for Stephie who stains and tears her skirt and is punished by Aunt Marta. The sisters are taken to a "revival meeting" as the island's Pentecostal Church. When they are overcome with emotion by the music and cry, they later learn that Aunt Alma and Aunt Marta believe they have accepted Jesus and are now redeemed. A few weeks later both girls are baptized and begin attending Sunday school. 

Eventually Stephie and Nellie are able to speak Swedish well enough to attend school. Stephie is disappointed to be placed back in the sixth grade which she completed a year ago in Austria. She is even more disappointed to be given used textbooks and workbooks. But Uncle Evert surprises her with a new wooden pencil case. School proves to be challenging for Stephie as she has to deal with being bullied by classmate Sylvia and her friends. However, Stephie excels and decides to try for the opportunity to attend the grammar school in Goteberg. That notion is quickly put to an end however by Aunt Marta who tells her they cannot possibly afford the tuition nor to board her in the city.

With the outbreak of war and the invasion of Norway and Denmark, Stephie begins to realize that her family's dream of obtaining visas to America and leaving Europe is now unlikely to happen. Her only hope is to have the relief committee consider sponsoring her parents. So desperate is Stephie that she attempts to walk across the ice to Goteberg. When this fails, Aunt Marta and Uncle Evert attempt to make a case for helping her parents without success.  As she struggles to deal with this reality, Stephie continues to move forward with her life, making new friends, and gradually capturing the heart of Aunt Marta too.

Discussion

A Faraway Island is the first book in a four book series by Swedish author, Annika Thor, about two Austrian-Jewish sisters who are sent to live in Sweden during the Second World War. The books were written in 1996 and have recently been translated from Swedish into English. The first two books have recently been published by Random House Yearling Books, with the final two slated to follow soon, although no date has been issued as to when.

Annika Thor was born into a Jewish family living in Goteborg, Sweden sixty years ago. Thor considers that had her paternal grandparents not immigrated from Belarus in the early 1900's, she would likely not have been born. After the Kristallnacht in November, 1938, the Jewish community in Sweden arranged for the transport of over five hundred Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to safety. Sadly, the parents of these children were never allowed to immigrate with them, and many never saw their children again in this life. The Jewish children generally ended up living in rural areas, very different from their middle class upbringing. The cultural shock, in addition to the stress of relocating alone, must have been enormously traumatic. As with many Jewish children who were placed with families of other faiths, often their cultural and religious heritage was not respected. Thor based her books on "interviews with about a dozen of the real refugees who shared their childhoods, their letters, and their diaries, as well as on the research of Ingrid Lomfors, a Jewish historian in Sweden who explored the destinies of the five hundred refugee children."

Told through the narrative of twelve-year-old Stephie Steiner, Thor effectively portrays the cultural shock that many Jewish children would have experienced. Stephie's family were well off Jewish Austrians living in Vienna. At this time, Vienna was the cultural capital of Europe with its music, literature and fine arts. Stephie's father was a doctor,her mother an opera singer when she was younger. Stephie's parents were well off and took part in the vibrant culture that existed at this time in the city.  In Vienna they had a large apartment with a cook, a housemaid and a cleaning lady. Stephie's family attended concerts and movies, and took vacations. When Britta asks Stephie if her family are rich, this brings back memories of her life in Vienna. "She remembers the large apartment, the beautiful furniture, the soft rugs. She remembers her mother's elegant clothes, her fur coats and hats. And Papa's study with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, filled with leather-bound volumes". The photograph of her parents show that her mother was well dressed, "Her permed hair, her lipsticked lips, the elegant stole around her neck."  

Stephie finds herself in an isolated house, at the end of the island and feels like it is at the "end of the world." Life is sparse and plain. Stephie notes that her bedroom at Aunt Marta's has no books and no art. Her own mother looks so different from "the women on the island with their tightly twisted buns, their plain faces and cotton dresses." She speaks German and cannot understand Swedish, although she learns the new language quite quickly. Everything from the landscape, to the climate, to the food and even to the school are very different from life in Vienna. 

As was very common during this era, the religious beliefs of Jewish refugee children was not often respected. Those who were placed with Christian families were often coerced into practicing the Christian faith. In some cases, learning to recite Christian prayers or being baptized was done to protect Jewish children from being identified by the Nazis. However, in Stephie and Nellie's situation that immediate danger is not present. When Stephie arrives at Aunt Marta's home she immediately notices the picture of Jesus in her bedroom. Soon after she and Nellie are baptized, enrolled in Sunday school. They do not resist as they are young children, totally dependent on the adults who are caring for them. Their foster parents seem oblivious to the fact that they might believe differently. Stephie doesn't tell her mother about being baptized because she is worried this will upset her. It is a troubling secret that she believes she will have to keep the rest of her life - a burden no child should have to carry. Although Stephie feels some confusion about Christian beliefs, the author doesn't really explore this aspect of life for the two girls.

The Jewish experience during this early part of the war is told through flashbacks of Stephie remembering events in Austria prior to her and Nellie leaving. For example Stephie remembers how they were not able to go to the beach in Vienna as this was forbidden to Jews. She also remembers returning from the playground with Nellie and seeing the elderly furrier and his wife on their knees scrubbing the sidewalk as people mocked and laughed at them. And when she struggles to tell Aunt Marta about what happened with the summer guests' dog Putte, she reveals how the Nazi soldier shot her beloved dog Mimi in front of her.

Although the novel focuses on the journey of Stephie and Nellie, there is also a second journey that involves Aunt Marta. She is a crusty, severe woman described as "...a woman with a thin, stern-looking face. Her salt-and-pepper hair is twistedinto a tight bun at the nape of her neck." She is critical of most everything Stephie does. It is revealed later in the novel that Marta Jansson lost her daughter, Anna-Lisa and was never the same. This loss seems to have locked her heart and her emotions deep inside her. However when Aunt Marta becomes aware of just want Stephie and Nellie have endured, she stands up for Stephie after an altercation between Stephie and the shopkeeper's son. She defends Stephie, calling her "my little girl". This term of endearment goes a long way to healing the hurt and loss that Stephie has been experiencing.

Despite the setting in rural Sweden and a different era with the onset of World War II, A Faraway Island is in many ways similar to the novel, Anne of Green Gables written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The movie adaptations by Kevin Sullivan in 1985 were extremely popular through the late 1980's and well into the 1990's. There are similar characters and events: stiff and no-nonsense Auntie Marta is similar to the crusty Marilla Cuthbert, quiet, unassuming Uncle Evert is like Matthew Cuthbert able to connect with the young girl they've taken in, Sylvia is like the irritating bully Josie Pye, while Stephie's teacher,  Miss Bergstrom is similar to the wonderfully uplifting Miss Muriel Stacy. At one point in the novel, Uncle Evertt, in a moment reminiscent of Matthew Cuthbert, tells Auntie Marta, "She's a fine girl. I'm glad we took her in." As with Anne Shirley whose attempt to dye her hair leaves her with short hair, Stephie also ends up with short hair after attempting to trim the burned hair from her braid.When Stephie is told she cannot go on to grammar school in the city of Goteberg, an unexpected benefactor, their summer guests - a doctor and his wife, arrange for Stephie to board at their home in the city. 

This short novel is well written and holds the reader's interest with the ongoing troubles and tribulations of the young protagonist who must adapt to her new life in Sweden. Stephie's plight is real and it's easy to feel a great deal of empathy for her, especially since we know the likely fate that awaits her parents in Austria. Annika Thor doesn't go into too much detail as to the Jewish experience in Austria, just enough to demonstrate the cruelty of the Nazi regime to younger readers. The author has set up the story for the next novel, with Stephie moving to Goteberg to continue her studies.

This book will be of interest to girls, aged 8 to 12 who enjoy historical fiction. 

Book Details:
A Faraway Island by Annika Thor
Random House Children's Books 2009 translated by Linda Schenck
247 pp.

Far to Go by Alison Pick

Either way, when I think of the human potential stolen, of the millions of little lights snuffed out, I can't help but wish that the living, at least, would embrace what was taken from the dead.

Far To Go is the interweaving of two stories - a current narrative which overlaps a historical one. The present day narrator is an elderly woman whose identity isn't revealed until almost the end of the novel. The past narrative is the dominant one of the novel and recounts the story of a Jewish Czech couple, Pavel and Annelise Bauer who are living in the Sudetenland in 1938 and who struggle to survive in the rapidly deteriorating conditions prior to the Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland and the beginning of World War II. It is told by the Bauer's governess, twenty-three-year-old Marta Mueller, who comes from a troubled background.

Pavel and Annelise live with their son, Pepik, in a small town in the Sudetenland, where they own a factory built by Pavel's father. Pavel, whose father fought for the Germans in World War I, is a Czech nationalist. Pavel is the eternal optimist while Anneliese is emotionally distant, fashionable and more practical.

The Bauer's story, as told by Marta, opens with ominous indications that the Germans will occupy the Sudetenland, which they lost after World War I. Czech Jews are beginning to experience the effects of marginalization, their factories and businesses are being occupied,  including Pavel's factory. Other Jews are beaten to death or attacked. Anneliese wants to leave while they still can, but Pavel refuses, saying that they must "live what we believe in". Because Pavel insists upon staying, Anneliese decides to take matters into her own hands and does something that drives a permanent wedge between her and Pavel.

Eventually, the family along with many other refugees, relocates to Prague amid further chaos, in the belief that Czechoslovakia will safe. They are mistaken and as the crisis intensifies, they see their options slowly dwindle and eventually disappear. Unable to obtain the necessary exit visas and travel permits, in desperation, the Bauers make a decision that changes their lives forever. They decide to try to get Pepik onto the Kindertransport out of Czechoslovakia to safety in Britain.

Within Pavel and Anneliese's story is that of Marta. Marta is romantically involved with Ernst Anselm, a married man and Pavel's assistant at the factory. But Marta learns that Ernst is not loyal to Pavel and is a Nazi sympathizer. In fact, he is a sadistic and cruel man who thinks only of himself. Marta is a complex person, undecided about who to be loyal to and quite frightened of being abandoned. She has no family and is terrified she will be left behind by the Bauers, whatever they decide to do. Ernst warns her that she will ultimately have to choose and soon. Marta experiences great conflict, changing her mind frequently based on what happens in the Bauer household. The choices Marta makes directly impact the Bauers, in ways she could not have fathomed resulting in tremendous guilt. However, this guilt never seems to really impact how Marta behaves. She simply does what she feels she needs to - perhaps what many people do in dire situations.

Interwoven, infrequently with the Bauer's story, is the present day story told by an elderly narrator who is a Holocaust researcher by the name of Lisa. Among her many areas of research, Lisa also has studied the Kindertransport. The Kindertransport was a program in which Jewish children were sent out of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany to safety in Britain. It began after the pogrom of November 9 and 10, 1938, known as Kristallnacht.  Lisa is trying to make contact with someone, a person she has spent her entire life looking for. Finally, after all her years of hard work, cutting through the reticence of Holocaust survivors to share their stories, she has managed to locate this one person whom she has more than a passing connection to. Lisa sets up a meeting with this survivor which eventually reveals to the reader how all the narratives fit together -the past finally catching up to the present.

Discussion

Far To Go is an engaging historical novel. The writing in this novel is brilliant and eloquent. It's difficult not to read the Bauer's story and feel a sense of impending doom and overwhelming tragedy. Readers know that if the Bauer's don't act quickly, it will be too late and know what lies in their future. Their story is all the more poignant because as Europe careens towards war, their relationship unravels, the result of personal tragedy, personal loss, betrayal and the developing crisis in Czechoslovakia. There is tragedy on many levels too - ethnic, national and personal.

Author Allison Pick excels at depicting the gradual descent of Europe as a region and also on an individual level, into racial hatred and war.  This is especially well demonstrated by the character of Ernst, who whispers to Marta, asking her if she's noticed whether Jews smell.When he blurts this out during one of their clandestine meetings, he immediately retracts it. He's not sure what he should or should not say. Later on Ernst talks about how he's is beginning to feel that Germany and the Sudetenland would be better off without Jews and that it's not about religion but race. While Marta doesn't know what she believes, she does make a point of noting whether or not her Jewish employer,  Pavel Bauer smells. However, Ernst is an opportunist, or maybe worse yet, a predator. He begins to actively try to seize all of the Bauer's assets. But he still has a glimmer of conscience when he appeals to Marta for affirmation. "He was more uncertain than he was letting on, about  his feelings towards the Jews and how his old friend Pavel might fit in with them. He wanted to be bolstered, reassured. Ernst too, Marta realized, felt guilty. Even if he himself was unaware of it."

Pick keeps her readers engaged by the ongoing mystery of the identity of the book's narrator and her connection to the Bauer family. It works well and creates a multi-faceted story that holds till the very end. Far To Go is a unique blend of historical fiction combined with a modern mystery. There are themes of identity, loss, and betrayal throughout. A few unnecessary items creep into the story but overall a brilliantly conceived piece of story-telling.

For more information on the Kindertransport please check out the Kindertransport Association website at www.kindertransport.org.

Book Details:
Far To Go by Alison Pick
Toronto: House of Anasi Press    2011
314 pp.