In The Valley of the Grizzly by Ed Ferrell

In The Valley of the Grizzly is a wilderness survival novel. 

Fourteen year old Ben James, a Tlingit Indian and his grandfather Cyrus Paul accompany Dan Taggart, a bush pilot on a trip into the northern British Columbia wilderness. They are flying from Wrangell, Alaska to Tahltan Creek, British Columbia when engine trouble forces their plane to land on a lake. Dan is able to repair the plane and inexplicably leaves Ben and his grandfather in the small camp to cancel the mayday. He never returns. This leaves Ben and his grandfather stranded in the unforgiving northern wilderness, some three hundred miles east of Telegraph Creek, British Columbia.

On their own, Grandfather realizes that Ben needs to learn the way of the bush so he begins instructing him in the bush craft used by his Tlingit ancestors. He teaches Ben how to pray before hunting, promising never to waste anything and how to show respect for all the animals and the environment. At first Ben is embarrassed and uninterested in his grandfather's Indian lore. But when it becomes apparent that Dan might not return, Ben becomes more open and he begins to listen and try to understand what his grandfather is teaching him. He learns how to make a fire, set snares, and to be observant about the signals other animals are sending that might indicate danger.

That danger is identified when the two encounter a huge grizzly bear, whose territory they find themselves in. After a first terrifying encounter in which Grandfather talks the bear down using formal Tlingit to show the bear respect, Ben realizes that they will have be on the watch all the time. Grandfather tells Ben that he believes this bear has been hurt by humans and is angry. Further adversity hits when Grandfather dies and Ben now must face the wilderness alone.

Gradually throughout the summer Ben learns how to live off the land and begins preparing for winter. He picks up a friend in a lone wolf who serves to alert Ben to the presence of the grizzly. Although he tries to avoid the grizzly there are more encounters. There is a detailed and gory description of the grizzly killing and feeding on a caribou. "The silver tip reared up to his full height and located Ben, its broad head just a few feet below Ben. The grizzly stared into Ben's eyes and he saw death looking at him. In a strained voice, Ben said, 'Hootz, I didn't set the trap that tore off your foot or hurt you in any way. I am Ben James of the Gooch Kaynlye House.'"

Ben locates a cave and makes it his home, preparing for winter by stocking up on caribou jerky and using whatever he can to help him survive the coming cold weather. But one day he and Wolf return to find the grizzly has entered their cave. Ben knows he needs that cave in order to survive the winter. This leads to a final, brutal confrontation that forms the climax of the novel.

Discussion

Originally published in 2002 as Wolf Brother. Survival in the Far North, this novel is sure to appeal to young teen boys interested in wilderness survival and animals. The novel was reprinted in 2011 with a dedication to their father from William and Patricia Ferrell. Overall it is well written, with considerable detail given to surviving in the wilderness. The encounters with the grizzly are exciting, as Ferrell effectively captures the terror and awe of these large, dangerous animals.

Carroll Edgar Ferrell moved to Alaska when he was a young man and loved the northern wilderness. He used his extensive personal experience in the Alaskan and Canadian back country to help him write this novel. Ferrell also relied upon information provided by Tlingit Medicine Man, Cyrus Peck, Jr. and accounts of grizzly attacks in the north.

A map of Ben's territory would have added significantly to this novel, allowing the reader to place the story. A more appealing cover would also entice more young readers to read what is a very well written, but somewhat predictable survival story. And the novel could do without the typo errors, especially the one on the back cover.

Book Details:
In the Valley of The Grizzly by Ed Ferrell
Alaska Northwest Books     2011
179 pp.

Thunder over Kandahar by Sharon E. McKay

Sharon McKay's Thunder over Kandahar is the story of two Afghani girls, Tamanna and Yasmine, who have been brought together by circumstances beyond their control and who forge an enduring friendship that survives class differences, illness, war and separation.

Yasmine and her father and mother have come back to Afghanistan, so her father (Baba) can teach and help his beloved country rebuild after the ouster of the Taliban. She misses England very much and has a difficult time understanding her father's "call back to the land" of his birth. Yasmine cannot comprehend all the social restrictions, and the poverty of Afghanistan. She wants to return to England. 

One day while she and her mother are out walking and singing in Herat, they are targeted by the Taliban who severely beat her mother. Yasmine's mother suffers a badly broken leg in the attack and is bedridden. Baba decides to move the family to Grandfather's home in Bazaar-E-Panjwayi, Kandahar Province. There they will live in a small village where Grandfather is respected and where they will be near the American FOB (Forward Operating Base). 

In this village, a young girl named Tamanna lives with her Uncle Zaman and her mother. Three years earlier, when her uncle was beating her mother, Tamanna tried to stop the assault and her hip was broken by a kick from her uncle. Tamanna is now lame. Her uncle instructs Tamanna to sell naan to a new customer from Herat who is wealthy and important. That customer is Yasmine's father. Soon Baba requests that Tamanna become a companion for his lonely daughter, Yasmine. 

The two girls get along wonderfully, despite a language difference. Yasmine speaks English, French and some Dari, while Tamanna speaks both Pashto and Dari. Yasmine teaches Tamanna English, and Tamanna returns the favour by teaching Yasmine Pashto. They also study arithmetic in the afternoon and learn about the history of Afghanistan from Baba. Eventually the new school, built by the Americans is opened but on the first day of school, it is attacked by the Taliban, who injure Yasmine and threaten the teacher. 

One day Baba has to take Yasmine's mother to the FOB to be treated as she is now very ill. He tells Yasmine that she cannot come but that they are planning to leave Afghanistan after her mother is treated by the American doctors. Baba has decided to return to London, as the situation is worsening quickly because of the Taliban insurgents. However, on their way to the FOB, their cart is attacked and both parents seriously injured. They are flown to Kandahar for treatment, while Yasmine is slated to follow them in a car hired by the Americans.

 Meanwhile, Tamanna is to be married off to a older man to pay off her uncle's drug debts - a prospect that horrifies her. She is also very sick and losing weight, but she knows she is alone and there is no one who can help her.  Their lives intertwine once again when Yasmine, who is to be sent to Kandahar to meet up with her parents, does not forget Tamanna in her need. However, all does not go as planned for neither Yasmine nor Tamanna. Fleeing for their lives, their new found friendship is tested over the next few weeks as they struggle to leave Afghanistan.

Discussion

This well researched novel presents what appears to be a very accurate picture of life in Afghanistan during the Afghan War. McKay provides her readers with interesting tidbits of background history of the country, insights into the culture, how Westerners are viewed by the Afghan people and the views of the Taliban insurgents.  Some of the problems touched upon in this novel include the abuse of children by the Taliban, the crushing poverty of the country, the terrible abuse of women, the opium addiction problem which decimates many impoverished tribal villages, and the cooperation of the Americans/UN with the country's warlords.

Yasmine's parents are well educated Afghanis who hope for a modern and moderate society. Yasmine represents the Western outsider who doesn't know or understand the culture and Tamanna is typical of many Afghani who hope for a better life, especially for women. McKay very effectively conveys the hopes and aspirations that both young and middle-aged women in Afghanistan have for their lives, for the families, and for their country. Both girls are courageous, and selfless - willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for one another.

There is a large cast of characters in the novel but these are introduced one after another with relative ease, and are easy to keep track of. McKay lets the reader know what happens to all the major characters over the years which adds a sense of closure to the novel. All the characters are realistic and well drawn and it is easy to empathize with all but especially the women and children who suffer so much.

Thunder over Kandahar is an excellent, suspenseful novel for young people interested in Afghanistan and who wish to learn more about the conflict and how it has affected the people of the country. The author spent time in Afghanistan conducting research for this novel which was vetted by Muslims in both the West and Afghanistan and also by young teen readers.

Book Details:
Thunder over Kandahar by Sharon E. McKay
Toronto: Annick Press   2010 
260 pp.

Rachel's Secret by Shelly Sanders

It is 1903. Fourteen-year-old Rachel Paskhar is a Jewish girl who lives in the village of Kishinev with her father Gofshar, her mother Ita and her older sister Nucia. On this cold winter day, she is skating on the River Byk with  her friends, Chaia Berlatsky and Leah and their friends, Yoram and Meyer.  Rachel meets up with fourteen-year-old Mikhail Rybachenko when she trips over a branch. She doesn't want to skate with her friends who have been spending more time with their boyfriends than with her. 

Mikhail suggests that maybe Chaia is thinking of marriage but Rachel believes that is ridiculous as they are much too young to be considering marriage. However, Mikhail tells her that his mother was married at sixteen and his grandmother even earlier. Rachel responds that she wants to be a famous writer and marry someone she loves and only have she has travelled the world. As they continue to argue, suddently Mikhail pulls Rachel into an embrace and kisses her. This shocks Rachel who admonishes him.

They encounter fourteen-year-old Sergei Khanzhenkov who also likes Rachel and wants her to skate with him. However, Rachel is not interested. She remembers how they collided a few days earlier and Sergei caused her to drop a bag of flour. He made no offer to replace the flour. So when Rachel refuses to skate with him, he angrily leaves. Rachel and Mikhail continue to skate until Rachel's older sister, Nucia calls her to go home.

Meanwhile as Sergei  and Petya walk home together, they discuss their Jewish neighbours. Petya, whose father is mayor of Kishinev, relates how people complain to him about how crowded Kishinev is because of all the Jews coming to the town. Sergei wonders if Mikhail's father knows that he is interested in Rachel who is a Jew and he tells Petya that his father believes the Jews are taking all the jobs and that they will eventually control Kishinev. But Petya feels that the Jewish shops do good work. 

Sergei lives with his mother Tonia and father Aleksandr,  his Aunt Carlotta, and his younger sister, eight-year-old Natalya. His father is a police officer who expects Sergei to also soon become a police officer and marry. However, Sergei doesn't want this for himself and decides he needs to tell Mikhail that they must leave Kishinev sooner than planned. Meanwhile as Mikhail skates, he thinks back on the conversation he had with his grandfather earlier that day: how he wanted to attend university and travel, not begin working in the factory as his grandfather wanted. His grandfather wants him to work in his factory that processes tobacco but Mikhail believes he can find work in St. Petersburg. 

At the river's edge, Mikhail meets his Uncle Vasily and his cousin Philip. Some previous quarrel had resulted in Vasily and Philip not being welcome in Mikhail's grandfather's home. Vasily is drunk and quarrelsome, revealing that he lost his position at the factory. Mikhail is tripped by Philip resulting in him crashing to the ice and hitting his head. He offers to intervene with grandfather on Vasily's behalf but Vasily tells him that won't make a difference. If Mikhail is gone, then Vasily's father has no one but him to run the business. Mikhail pleads for his life but Vasily stabs him in the chest and repeatedly in the back, arms and legs, killing him.

Meanwhile, halfway home, Rachel realizes that she has left behind the new red shawl her mother made for her. She runs back to the river and locates it by the bench near a grove of trees. But while there she hears the familiar voice of Mikhail and peering through the trees she witnesses Mikhail's brutal murder by his uncle. Terrified, Rachel flees home, falling and dirtying her skirt. At home she is so distraught she can't eat and is consumed by guilt, wondering if her friendship with Mikhail was responsible for his murder. Nucia also reveals that Rachel was skating with Mikhail, resulting in her mother admonishing her for being seen with a gentile. 

At school the next day Sergei is puzzled by Mikhail's absence until a policeman reveals that blood was found on the ice of the River Byk and that Mikhail is missing. Sergei is questioned by the policeman but doesn't reveal that Mikhail was with Rachel. Later that night Sergei learns that Mikhail's body has been found far away in Dubossary. When he shows his father the next day where he last saw Mikhail and reveals that he was with Rachel, his father tells him to stay away from Rachel, that she is bad luck. Sergei questions his father as to why he and the other policemen are so focused on the Jews. As he is walking past the grove of trees, Sergei finds Rachel's red shawl that she was wearing the day she was skating with Mikhail. He quickly retrieves it, hiding it from his father. 

Rachel is so distressed over Mikhail's murder that she doesn't attend school for several days. Her father Gofsha, who works as a shoemaker's assistant, arrives home with the news about Mikhail's murder and how his body has been found in Dubossary. Her father questions her, and while Rachel desperately wants to tell him what she saw, she is afraid he won't believe her and that the police will know that she saw the murder. Gofsha tells Rachel's mother Ita, that they are not to go out alone and not beyond lower Kisinev where they live as there is talk that a Jew may be responsible for the murder.

At her school, the Jewish Gymnazyium, her friends Chaia and Leah reveal that their families will not be attending shul tomorrow because of the rumours being spread that Mikhail's murder was committed by a Jew for his blood. At Shabbos with her family and Mr. Talanksy and his son Sacha, Mr. Talansky tells Rachel's father that the gentile newspaper, Bessarabets is blaming Jews and calling them parasites. When news of Mikhail's murder spreads, the Russian community begins spreading the lie that Mikhail was the victim of a blood libel. Fed by anti-Jewish propaganda from the local newspaper, racial hatred ignites and seethes in the town of Kishinev. People have already been blaming the Jews for many things as the area has a history of prejudice against them.

One afternoon while Sergei is in Chuflinskii Square with his parents and Natalya, they witness a well-dressed Jewish family being harassed and beaten by Russian peasants. No one intervenes to help the family. Natalya tells Sergei that everyone including her friends and the teachers are talking about Mikhail's murder and the blood ritual. As the situation worsens, Rachel is harassed by a shopkeeper then attacked by a group of teenage girls who kick and punch her. She is rescued by Sergei who drives the girls away and offers to walk Rachel home. He apologizes to her for causing her to drop the bag of flour. Sergei asks her why the Jews are believed to commit "blood libel" and Rachel explains that when the bread they make for Passover, matzah is old or wet, a red mold develops. This is the source of the ugly rumour. Sergei also encourages Rachel in her determination to be a writer, telling her that his sister who is smart should have more choices.  As they begin to develop a friendship, Rachel finally confides in him about Mikhail's murder. Sergei attempts to tell his father what he knows about Mikhail's murder in the hope that the real culprits will be arrested and the Jewish community exonerated, but his father refuses to act until he hears from the Governor.

Nevertheless, the damage has already been done. Violence and hatred are unleashed against the Jewish community in Kishinev in the form of destroyed homes and businesses and the massacre of fifty one innocent people. Rachel must come to terms with the losses she suffers and Sergei must deal with the part his own father had in the violence against their Jewish neighbours.

Discussion

Rachel's Secret takes readers on a journey inside the 1903 pogrom of Kishinev, Russia. The book was inspired by the experiences author Shelly Sander's grandmother endured as a survivor of a pogrom in Russia. Many of the characters in the book are real people who lived through the events Sanders describes including Ita and Gofsha Paskar, Chaia and Hosea Berlatsky, Sergei's father Aleksandr Khanszenkov, Bishop Iakov and a few others. The novel describes events over the time frame of March to May of 1903.

The Kishinev pogrom was a real event that occurred in the town of Kishinev on Easter Sunday at noon,  April 19, 1903. Kishinev at this time was part of the Russian Empire, having been annexed from Moldava in 1818. About half the population of Kishinev were Jewish in the late 1800s. While Jews owned many businesses and factories, most Jews lived in poverty, attending their own schools, As mentioned in the novel, the Bessarabets, a Russian newspaper regularly published anti-semitic and inflammatory articles about the Jewish population. 

The pogrom was triggered not only by the anti-semitic propaganda published in the newspapers but also by the murder of Mikhail Rybachenko, a Ukrainian boy, in the town of Dubossary located north of Kishinev, and the suicide of a Jewish girl. The horror began at noon with the harrassment of Jews in Chuflinskii Square. As Sanders describes in her novel, many of the Christian homes and businesses had crosses chalked on them, or icons in the windows, protecting them from the mobs that began to roam looking for Jews. They descended upon the Jewish quarter, smashing windows, demolishing property, looting, raping and murdering. The local police stood by and watched as Jews were beaten, mutilated and murdered. The pogrom ended three days later with murder of thirty-four men and seven women, almost five hundred wounded and two thousand homeless. The local population was unrepentant over what had happened. And it would be repeated two years later in 1905.

In Rachel's Secret, Shelly Sanders has written a balanced fictional story based on the horrifying events of 1903. The Jewish community are shown as being peaceful and integrating as much as they are allowed into Russian society, speaking both Russian and Yiddish. The novel's three main characters, Rachel Paskar, Mikhail Rybachenko, Sergei Khanzhenkov are friends drawn into horrific events beyond their control. Rachel is a witness to the murder of Mikhail that sets in motion the pogrom of 1903. The pogrom is described through the eyes of Sergei, who watches the raging mob, while his father, chief of police does nothing.

The three main characters are well developed and believable even though one of them, Mikhail, has only a minor part in the story. They are realistic because like most teenagers in the 20th century, they want more than what tradition has to offer the young of a new century. Rachel wants to marry for love but only after she has travelled and become a writer. Sergei doesn't want to be a police officer but instead wishes to travel and become an artist. Mikhail also wishes to leave Kishinev to attend university rather than take over the family's tobacco business. 

Rachel is strong, sensible heroine who like all young people wishes for a better future. She is overwhelmed after witnessing the brutal murder of Mikhail, a boy she likes. Initially, Rachel questions if she is responsible for his murder. "Rachel feared that Mikhail's uncle had seen them together, that maybe she was partly to blame for the stabbing." She is haunted by these thoughts."Seeing Mikhail killed made Rachel wonder if their friendship was to blame, because he'd ventured outside his world and into hers, because he'd cared about her more than he should have." 

Rachel is also consumed by fear and guilt and she desperately wants to tell someone what she witnessed so the perpetrator can be brought to justice. But she knows this is not what will happen should she speak up. "She desperately wanted to tell her father what she'd seen but was afraid he wouldn't believe that a police officer was responsible. He might think she'd been mistaken, that it wasn't an officer at all, and insist on going to the police. Then the man who'd killed Mikhail would know she had seen him and come after her."   Later on Rachel writes in her diary accusing herself of cowardice and improper conduct. "If only I could have stopped Mikhail's uncle, she wrote in Yiddish. For as long as I live, I will regret my actions, my cowardice....I regret also my friendship with Mikhail. I see now that it was wrong, that people from two different worlds do not belong together." 

Eventually Rachel tells her sister, who advises her to keep this secret forever but as she comes to trust Sergei, she tells him as well. At the trial of Mikhail's killers, when it appears they may not face justice due to the lack of a witness, Rachel takes the courageous step of coming forward and giving her account of what she saw that winter day. "She could not bring Mikhail back, but at least she'd made sure the people responsible were punished. Truth had finally conquered evil." 

It is Rachel who takes the initiative and writes to her paternal grandparents, Bubbe and Zeyde asking them to help. They respond with much love and send Rachel and her family three train tickets to Vladivostok, encouraging them to travel to Shanghai and onto America. It is a life-changing choice, all due to Rachel's quick thinking.

Through the characters of Sergei, and some of the minor characters such as Father Petrov, Sanders shows that not all Russian Christians were so prejudiced towards the Jewish people. Sergei is smitten with Rachel, an attraction that is forbidden in both their cultures.  With Mikhail now gone, Sergei finds the courage to approach Rachel and to try to mitigate some of the harm directed towards her and her family. Unlike his fellow Orthodox Christians, Sergei is struggling with how his friends, family and the Christian community treat their Jewish neighbours. When he and his friends are skating for the first time on the river after Mikhail's murder, Sergei finds himself defending their Jewish neighbours. Both he and Petya find the stories of blood libel ridiculous, but their friends Nikolai and Theodore believe that there are too many Jews, and because they are so successful in their businesses, they should be driven out.  When his friends attack a Jewish woman and her two children, Sergei tries to talk them out of it and even attempts to have Petya help him stop the attack. However, when Petya refuses, Sergei runs off, "disgusted by his inability to help."

Sergei becomes very aware of the hypocrisy being shown by his fellow Christians. When he is given a gingerbread cross at the Fast Fair, Sergei notes that it tastes dry. "He stared at the cross and became queasy. This icon was the most sacred symbol of their faith. It represented all that was good and noble. Yet the talk about blood and killing Jews went against everything the icon stood for. " 

This leads him to try and stop the rioters in Rachel's courtyard and to help a young traumatized boy named Menahem. After the riots he continues to visit Menahem at the hospital and at the orphanage. And later, he confronts his father in front of the mayor and Governor von Raben for his prejudice and lack of action. Again and again he challenges people for their prejudice towards their Jewish neighbours ;the shopkeeper who sells him tobacco and even his own mother who doesn't understand the involvement of her husband, Sergei's father in the pogrom. Sergei transforms from the timid schoolboy into a courageous teenager, willing to call out evil when he encounters it and willing to help others.

As with Sergei, not all Christians participate in the brutality. Father Petrov attempts to stop the mob, explaining that "Jewish people don't eat any meat that has blood in it."  Sacha Berlatsky reveals to Rachel afterwards, that he and his father, along with other Jews, survived because a gentile family hid them in their home.

Rachel's Secret is a well written novel about a real event, the first pogrom of the 20th century. In that regard, the 1903 pogrom in Kisinev was harbinger of events to come in Russia and Eastern Europe. This novel should be required reading for middle grades to help young readers understand how prejudice grows and is often learned from misinformation, envy and lies. The author has included a Historical Note and a Glossary at the back. A map showing the location of Kishinev in 1903 Europe would have been very helpful for younger readers.

Book Details:

Rachel's Secret by Shelly Sanders
Toronto: Second Story Press 2012
245 pp.

Two Generals by Scott Chantler

Synopsis:

In March of 1943, Scott Chantler's grandfather, Law Chantler, shipped out across the Atlantic for active service with the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, along with his best friend, Jack, a fellow officer. Not long afterward, they would find themselves making a rocky crossing of the English Channel, about to take part in one of the most pivotal and treacherous military operations of World War II: the Allied invasion of Normandy. Told through the eyes of everyday heroes, Two Generals is a story about friendship, and the tragedies and absurdities of war.

This is  one of the few graphic novels I've read this year and it was quite good. Very readable with excellent art done in sepia and black and white. Dramatic scenes were done in red. The story was interesting and I learned a lot about the Canadian troops struggles to help in the liberation of Caen, France. In fact, I felt the book captured the tremendous difficulties Canadian troops encountered during this part of the campaign to liberate France.

The entire book from the cover design to the quality of the paper used and the excellent art demonstrate that this book meant a great deal to Scott - it is the telling of his grandfather's story. In fact, the book is styled to look somewhat like a personal diary.

While there is some profanity throughout, overall Chantler does a very good job of making what is obviously  a very personal subject engaging and informative.

Book Details:

Two Generals by Scott Chantler
Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 2010

137 pp.

Queen of Hearts by Martha Brooks

Queen of Hearts is a coming of age story set in the 1940's when tuberculosis and TB sanatoriums were a significant part of twentieth century life. Marie-Claire Cote is a headstrong 15 year old who contracts TB from a beloved uncle. She is sent "chase the cure" at Pembina Hills San along with her younger brother and sister who have also become ill with TB. At Pembina Hills she is placed in a room with Signy, a young woman like herself but whom she finds annoying and needy. Signy has been at the San for years now and has suffered through many different procedures in an attempt to beat her TB. All Marie-Claire wishes to do though, it to get out of the San and get on with her life. In typical teenage ways, she doesn't care much about Signy, who has been abandoned to the sanatorium by her wealthy parents.  Marie Claire discovers that the sanatorium has a life all its own, with patients who marry and people who are cured who come back to work there. She gradually understands that she must learn to be a "patient patient". During her time there, Marie-Claire begins to mature and even falls in love.


This book provided a fascinating glimpse into a era that passed away only a decade before I was born. I remember asking my parents about the local sanatorium with its huge windows. This era ended with the widespread use of antibiotics which cured TB.
I have to say that throughout most of the book the character, Marie-Claire was not a likeable one. In fact, I had most decidely disliked her but then suddenly she grew up and seemed to change at the end. This was reflected in her decision at the end of the book which redeemed her in my eyes.

I'm not sure how attractive this book will be to ordinary teen readers, but those who like historical fiction will enjoy this short Canadian novel by acclaimed author and playwright, Martha Brooks.

Germania by John Wilson

Germania is a  novel about a Roman legion ambushed and slaughtered in the wilds of Germania. .The story is told by Lucius Quintus Claudianus, a member of the 19th Legion Scorpio, specifically the IXth cohort. In the opening chapter of Germania Lucius, nearing 100 years of age is living at his sister's grandson's villa just by the northwestern gate of the town of Herculaneum in 79 AD - the year of Mount Vesuvius' famous eruption which destroyed both Herculaneum and Pompeii. 

Lucius decides to write his story, "I have just returned from the roof and it is what I saw there that has prompted me to begin this tale. Although the sun still shines above and the sky to the west is as blue as a robin's egg, the picture is altogether different to the east. There a cloud hangs, turning the landscape below it as dark as midnight. It is no ordinary cloud, such as presages a thunderstorm, but an unnatural one that blossoms up in a vast column from the unknown depths of the mountain."

And so Lucius begins to tell us about the events that led up to a long forgotten tragedy, all the while unaware of the disaster about to unfold before him in Herculaneum. As a young apprentice signifer to the IXth Cohort, Lucius and a group of warriors are ambushed and captured by barbarians while on their way to Vetera to join the 19th Legion. They are quickly rescued by Cherusci warriors who are loyal to Rome and are part of the Roman Auxilliary forces. 

It is at this time that Lucius meets Freya, a Cherusci warrior who is travelling with her uncle Arminius. It is through Freya that Lucius begins to understand what life is like for the barbarian tribes that live on the borders of the Roman territory and what it is like to serve Rome but never be accepted as a an equal in Roman society. When Lucius offers Roman ways as a means to be civilized, Freya questions what being civilized will mean to her way of life and her tribe. It is this struggle to see the benefits Rome offers in contrast to the loss of a way of life and freedom that precipitates barbarian rebellion against Rome.

When the 19th Legion enters Illyria, Bato, leader of the Bruesci tribe rebels and attempts to force the Romans out of Illyria. The ensuing battle is described vividly and provides thrilling insight to Roman warfare. Although Bato is seemingly defeated this time, Freya soon comes to understand what her uncle Arminius is planning. When Arminius must choose between Rome and Cherusci, Freya must decide who she will be loyal to, Arminius, the Cherusci and their way of life, or Lucius and Rome.

Discussion

Germania is a novel that explores the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest which occurred in 9 A.D. The battle was fought between Roman soldiers and the Germani people. The battle began when the Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus were ambushed by the Germanic chieftain, Arminius. 

Arminius was a prince in Cherusci tribe, the son of the Cheruscan chief, Segimerus who was an ally of Rome. He learned to speak Latin, had Roman citizenship and was well educated. He eventually served in the Roman cavalry and became a commander in the auxiliaries. Arminius returned to Gaul where he served sd an officer in Varus's auxilia as well as a trusted advisor to Varus who was governor of Germania. But behind the scenes, Arminius was rallying the various Germanic tribes including the Cherusci, Marsi, Bructeri and many others to form an alliance against Rome.

Varus was considered a ruthless ruler in Germania and Arminius was not really loyal to Rome. Along with the other Germanic tribes, a plan was devised to ambush the three legions under Varus's command. Since the Roman army was well armed and very well trained, special tactics were needed. Arminius convinced Varus to set up a summer camp in Cherusci lands where they could be observed by the tribe. The plan was then to attack the Romans on their way back to their winter camp.

Arminius set his plan in motion, having his allies create unrest, while he influenced Varus's actions over the summer months. Varus began his move to the winter camp on September 7, 9 A.D with the XVII, XVIII and XIX Legions. Arminius left Varus, telling the Roman commander that he was organizing the Cherusci auxiliaries but in fact was organizing men from the Angrivarii and Bructeri to attack. The next day as the Roman army made its way through the Teutoburg Forest, they were attacked. Because of the dense bush, the Roman soldiers were strung out along a long line which made attack not only easy but successful. It is estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 Roman soldiers were killed, with a small number likely being enslaved. The Roman defeat was so complete that it shocked Emperor Augustus. Although the Roman defeat in the Teutoburg Forest is often listed as the main reason for limiting the Roman incursion in Germania, there were likely other factors at work as well.

Wilson's writing is vivid, exciting and he manages to include a great deal of historical fact and information about Roman legions in Germania. The ending while tragic is supremely satisfying. Highly recommended.

Book details:

Germania by John Wilson
Key Porter Books Limited 2008
278pp