Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill

This novel in  free verse tells the story of two daughters of a glass blower destined to marry the man the other loves. It is set in the 15th century Republic of Venice, on the Island of Murano and is based on a real historical person, Maria Barovier, who was one of the first women to open an enameling furnace.

Maria Barovier is the youngest daughter of Venetian glassblower, Angelo Barovier. Her father's family has molded glass on the Island of Murano since the 13th century when the Republic of Venice required all glassblowers to relocate to the island as a way to prevent fires and to protect the trade secrets of the glassblowers.

Angelo Barovier was preparing to leave Murano to study at the University of Padua when a terrible fire destroyed the family furnaces and killed most of the family. Angelo as well as a surviving brother, Giova, sought out work with other furnaces until they were able to restart their own business. Maria's father worked hard re-establishing his glassblowing business, training his two daughters, Giovanna and Maria. Maria's brothers were also a part of the family business; Paolo blew glass while Marino looked after the business.

The Barovier fornicas (furnaces) were the only ones to produce the cristallo, a clear crystal glass and this made her family renowned. But, someone who worked in the family business stole the secret and soon all the furnaces on Murano were making cristallo. A year later, Maria's father was dead from a heart attack. Now Maria's mother intends to marry her off to a wealthy nobleman to restore the family name and fortune as per her husband's will.

When the family's fortunes continue to fail, and Maria's brother Paolo spends his time pursuing a courtesan rather than blowing glass, they decide to take on a young gaffer (glassblower), Luca, who has no family name but whose work is exceptional.


 As suitors are brought before Maria and her mother, none seem suitable. In the meantime, Maria, who shows considerable talent as an artist begins visiting Luca and mixing batches for him. These visits lead her to see Luca in a different light, as an artist similar to herself and she begins to fall in love with him. But it seems that Luca does not feel the same towards Maria.

Eventually, Maria's mother settles on one man for her to marry, but she doesn't love him. Instead, her heart has turned towards another and towards the art of glassblowing. Complicating things even more, her suitor seems to have fallen for Giovanna. Can Maria find a way to be with the one she loves, or will she be required to sacrifice all for the sake of her family?

Discussion

In Sisters of Glass, Stephanie Hemphill has chosen a little known subject for this short novel geared towards younger readers, the Barovier's who were renowned for their beautiful glass making from the 1300's to the present. 

The Barovier glass making business was founded by Iacobello Barovier. The Barovier's became glassmakers and eventually came to own furnaces. The Barovier glassmaking company was established in  1324 on the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon. The glassmaking businesses were forced to relocate to Murano because of the fire risk from the glassmaking furnaces. Glassmaking was controlled by powerful families which included the Barovier family. Angelo Barovier who lived from 1400 to 1460, developed and patented a new kind of crystalline glass. His daughter, Marietta also was known for her glassmaking.

At the time Marietta lived, glassmaking was mainly done by men. Women worked to threat glass beads. However, Marietta created new glass beads which led the Doge Agostino Barbarigo to offer her the use of a small furnace. Marietta's creations included glass with floral motifs, sacred themes and many other symbols, as well as rich colours of emerald, ruby and white. She is best known for her creation of the Rosetta bead. Created in 1480, this bead features a twelve petal rose motif created using concentric red, blue and white (lattimo) layers which are then polished. These Rosetta beads were used in trading beads in North America, Asia and Africa in exchange for gold, gems or just as tokens given to tribal chiefs.

Hemphill takes the basic elements of the Barovier family history to create an interesting storyline while including numerous glassblowing terms throughout her novel that capture the life of the artisans on Murano. The author provides her readers with a glossary at the back so they can understand the terms used.

The two sisters in Sisters of Glass, Giovanna and Maria, are strong women who are torn between following tradition and their hearts. In this novel they find a way to do both, although realistically in 15th century Venice, that would have been difficult but perhaps possible given that the family was a powerful one in Venetian society. Women were not generally allowed to work in glassmaking because the work was deemed to difficult. However, Marietta was allowed to use a furnace, so this concession may possibly have paved the way for other breaks from tradition and social expectations.

Although this novel works well written in verse, because the subject is so unique and interesting, it would have been exceptional if it was done as a full novel in prose. Still as a short historical novel, it is well written, laced with themes of identity, familial duty and responsibility, with a fulfilling conclusion.

Book Details:
Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill
Knopf     2012
170 pp.

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker

Small Town Sinners explores the conflicts one young woman experiences between her faith and living in the modern world.

Lacey Anne Byer is the sixteen-year-old daughter of Ted and Theresa Byer, who are "pillars of the community" of West River. Lacey's dad is one of the pastors at the House of Enlightenment, an evangelical Christian church in the town of West River. Her best friend, Starla Joy Minter is a free spirit, with a caring, easy going manner. Starla lives with her older sister, Tessa, and their mother, a single woman who has been abandoned by her husband. Lacey's other best friend, is Dean Perkins, a boy who has gained considerable weight in the last year and is being bullied by Geoff Parsons.

Like other girls in her church community, Lacey wears a purity ring, symbolizing her decision to remain chaste until marriage. Lacey's life is characterized by always following the rules, something she's not happy about because she feels that she is missing out on life and excitement. She also feels this makes her boring and unattractive. She longs to step out of her comfort zone and try new things instead of always following the rules.

The novel opens with Lacey taking her drivers test and noticing a cute blond boy at the DMV office. A few days later, that same boy initiates their first meeting when he stops the car in the street to introduce himself. Lacey eventually recognizes him as Tyson (Ty) Davis, a kid she remembers from her first grade class and who left town ten years ago. Now sixteen-years-old, he's back living with his aunt, Vivian Moss who is the church librarian. Lacey and Ty begin a friendship that sees them meet up at Ulster Hill and sit and talk about life, about their faith and what it means to them. Lacey's parents do not know that she is meeting Ty on a regular basis.

Meanwhile at the church, efforts are on to prepare for their annual Hell House, which happens just before Halloween. The Youth Leaders meet to plan the Hell House which Lacey describes as follows: "They're kind of like haunted houses, which is why we do ours over Halloween weekend. Tour guides dressed as demons take the audience through the church, room by room, to view scenes of sin: a drunk driving crash, a suicide, domestic abuse, and an abortion."  The purpose behind Hell House is to show young people the reality of sin and to draw them into committing to Christ. Lacey is fully committed to participating in Hell House and desperately wants to be Abortion Girl, a role usually only given to a senior student. This year's Hell House will include scenes on gay marriage, drunk driving, abortion, and spousal abuse. Lacey decides to audition for the part of Abortion Girl despite her parents reservations.  "In the past, I haven't gone for what I want. I've been safe and good and all those things that were expected of me...."

Against the backdrop of her faith community's preparations for Hell House, Lacey begins to question her beliefs, especially when she learns that her best friend Starla Joy's sister, Tessa is pregnant.  She questions what she believes in, and how her community treats those who have made choices similar to the ones portrayed in Hell House. In an effort to resolve her conflicts, Lacey talks to both Ty who urges one approach - a nonjudgmental and more liberal view, and her father who urges another - faithfulness to Biblical teachings.

Discussion

In her novel, Small Town Sinners, Walker explores the use of the haunted houses, known as Hell Houses to evangelize Christian teens about their faith and social issues. This is done through the character of  Christian teen, Lacey Anne Byer, whose father is one of the pastors of their evangelical church. Lacey along with her friends, Starla Joy and Tessa Minter, Dean, and classmate, Geoff participate in their church's Hell House. Newcomer, Tyson Davis however, is the older teen questioning their beliefs and motives.

An alternative to haunted houses, Hell Houses use tableaus or scenes depicting a specific serious sin such as a teen drunk driving or a girl undergoing an abortion. The scenes are often gory and vivid but the purpose is not to scare but to evangelize. There are over three thousand churches in the United States that participate in the Hell House movement which was started by Jerry Falwell. However, most mainstream Christian churches do not subscribe to this type of fire and brimstone Christianity. Walker does address this in the novel, through the character of Starla Joy who tells a questioning Ty,  "But Hell House is our chance to show people our own age what the consequences are if you don't accept Jesus into your heart. And it's shocking -- it has to be so they'll pay attention."  However, Ty believes there are better ways to get teens to turn to Jesus and live good lives.

As the daughter of one of the pastors of their church, Lacey Anne begins struggling with what she believes and why she believes what she does. When initially discussing the concept of Hell House, Ty asks asks Lacey, "Do you think murder and using drugs are the same level of offense in God's eyes?" to which Lacey responds that they are both sins. Later on Lacey explains that having a pregnancy tableau in Hell House show "...girls that the wrong choices can lead to really painful consequences."  Ty tells Lacey that it's not that he doesn't believe in God, it's that doesn't agree with what he's been taught. He asks Lacey if she believes "all the people who commit sins are bad?" Unfortunately Lacey doesn't provide that answer, that it's the sin that is bad, and not the person.

When Starla Joy's sister, Tessa becomes pregnant by her boyfriend Jeremy Jackson, the town and the faith community is thrown into a crisis. Tessa is taken that night to Saint Angeles Home to stay until she gives birth. Meanwhile the next day Jeremy is seen having fun with friends. This leads Starla Joy to note: "The guys get to go on with their lives, doing whatever they want, taking no responsibility because they're not physically tied to the sin they've committed."  Lacey is disappointed with how her parents and her church community are responding to the situation of Tessa Minter's pregnancy. She tells Ty, "...there's something about the way people are acting in his name that isn't sitting right with me."

Once Tessa's pregnancy becomes known, Lacey's parents suggest that she distance herself from Starla Joy, in effect, encouraging her to abandon her friend in her hour of need. "Lacey Ann... when girls like that get themselves into trouble, they can affect other girls in the community too." This leads Lacey to remember how unaffected Jeremy seemed at school, while Tessa has been sent away. And she wonders why her parents don't refer to Jeremy Jackson as "boys like that". Instead Lacey tells her parents she is not abandoning Starla Joy, "...I'm also not going to stop spending time with my best friend when she needs me the most. That's not what I was taught."  and refuses to obey their request to find new friends.

Later on, Lacey and her father talk about how the consequences of sin seem uneven. When she mentions that Jeremy seems unaffected by what's happening, her father tells her that she doesn't know what Jeremy is experiencing because there is no obvious physical manifestation. Lacey questions Jeremy's participation in Hell House to which her father counters that Jeremy should be "taking his mind off things" and that "He's got a bright future, that boy. With basketball and --" Lacey is stunned by her father's inability to understand how unfair this seems. She asks her father, "What about Tessa and her bright future?" Lacey wonders, "How does he not see that Jeremy gets to do everything the he wants to do while Tessa is locked away like she's contagious until after she's had the baby?" She is further upset when her father seems to blame Tessa for the situation she's in because she's expected to be the gatekeeper of self-control. There is no such requirement placed on Jeremy.

In Small Town Sinners readers are presented with a group of Christian teens who are struggling to understand their faith.  Lacey believes certain behaviours are sinful but is often  unable to provide answers for why she holds the beliefs she does.  For example, when Lacey and Ty are discussing the abortion scene and its very gory depiction of a late term abortion, Ty states that he's "pretty sure it's quick and clean and safe ninety-nine percent of the time.....And I'm positive that it doesn't involve major blood or anything really violent. Most women walk out the same day."  Lacey really has no response to Ty, instead acknowledging to herself that "I guess I hadn't ever really thought about what an actual abortion might be like."  It would seem that Lacey is against abortion simply because she's been told its wrong. It doesn't appear that she's thought much about the issue, done some research to explore what's involved or determined why she thinks it is wrong. 

Later on after the friends visit Tessa at Saint Angeles, Starla Joy reveals that her sister is "pro-choice and anti-abortion" because while she wouldn't would choose abortion, "...she thinks it should be everyone's individual choice." However, Dean correctly points out that the girl who was abused and became pregnant is an extreme situation and that there is another life involved. Everyone rightly seems confused by what Tessa believes,  including Lacey. Ty accuses Lacey of not listening and states that "Tessa's not in favor of abortion. But she does believe in choice."  Which is what most supporters of abortion believe: killing an unborn child is a "choice", a euphemism to cover up what is truly being done.

Nevertheless, Tessa's "choice" to follow through with the pregnancy and place her baby for adoption has a positive ending, demonstrating that choosing life can result in many blessings: Tessa doesn't have to deal with the spiritual, emotional and physical effects of an abortion, she has brought a new life into the world, and a couple gets a baby they deeply want. Walker in her Nine Months Later chapter demonstrates the positives of choosing life: despite her pregnancy, Tessa is able to attend prom, graduate and go to university. 

Walker's dialogue and the information she incorporates into her novel comes from an article she did for ElleGirl in 2006 on Hell Houses. For a different perspective on Hell Houses please read Rethinking Youth Ministry from the website Patheos: https://www.patheos.com/resources/additional-resources/2011/10/christian-haunted-houses-brian-kirk-10-20-2011.

There's no doubt this is a provocative look at the extreme religious right that in no way represents the majority of those Christians who hold that abortion and premarital sex are wrong.  The cover, showing an apple with a bite taken out is a reference to the fall of Adam and Eve, after Eve takes a bite out of the apple from the Tree of Life. However, the bite is in the shape of a heart, suggesting the "hate the sin, love the sinner" is important. 

Book Details:
Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker
New York: Bloomsbury     2011
273 pp.

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

It all begins with an errant email sent one night by an unknown person,GDL824, to sixteen year old Ellie O'Neill. It turns out that person is a seventeen year old boy who lives in California with his pet pig, Wilbur. What follows are a series of emails that continue on through a period of three months in which EONeill and GDL824 establish an online friendship.

Unbeknownst to Ellie, her secret admirer is none other than teen hearthrob and actor, Graham Larkin. And what's more, iGraham has managed to convince his producer to move the location of his next movie to the small town of Henley, Maine where his unknown correspondent lives.

Graham and his costars are booked into the Henley Inn and with his arrival come the hordes of paparazzi. Meanwhile, Ellie and her best friend Quinn try to go about their jobs. Ellie  works at her mother's gift shop.

In a chance meeting, Graham enters Sprinkles after Ellie leaves and sees Quinn wearing Ellie's shirt with her name on it. He assumes Quinn is Ellie and asks her out to dinner. Graham quickly learns during his date with Quinn the truth about Ellie and sets off to meet her at her house. However, when Graham shows up at Ellie's house and identifies himself as the person she was corresponding with, Ellie is stunned and embarrassed. 

Ellie is reluctant at first to become involved with Graham because she is struggling to come to terms with the fact that she has been corresponding with such a famous person. "Most girls, she knew, would be delighted to find out they'd been corresponding with a movie star. But to Ellie, it just seemed unfair. She wanted nothing more than to spend time with GDL824 this afternoon. It was Graham Larkin she wasn't so sure about." 

Ellie is also reluctant to get involved with such a high profile person because of her past - or more specifically her mother's past. Ellie is the illegitimate daughter of a well known senator Paul Whitman, who is considering a run for the United States presidency. When her mother found herself pregnant and abandoned years ago, she fled to the small town of Henley, Maine to live a reclusive life. Ellie's potential involvement with Graham Larkin and being pursued by paparazzi is sure to uncover her family's secret.

Despite Ellie's fears, the following day Graham manages to convince her to meet him at a cove. Gradually Ellie's attraction to Graham returns and they begin to meet secretly, their attraction as real as it was online. But Ellie wonders how can two people with such different lives ever be together? And how can she still see Graham and protect her mother's privacy too?

Discussion

This Is What Happy Looks Like began wonderfully with a prologue featuring the emails sent between Graham and Ellie. They are sweet and witty, drawing the reader quickly into the story. A young woman who is unknowingly corresponding with teen heartthrob and movie star makes for a great romantic beginning. 

However, the initial premise as to how Graham and Ellie meet feels contrived. It's very unlikely even a major star would have much say in where a movie is filmed. Locations are scouted months if not a year in advance so that settings for various scenes can be arranged. Instead, the author should have developed another way for Graham and Ellie to meet- perhaps having Graham arriving on a vacation, or to visit a nearby friend or relative.

As a result, the novel loses its way quickly. The manner in which Graham and Ellie actually meet is rather creepy when he suddenly shows up at her house. It also seemed somewhat unrealistic that a major movie star (as Graham Larkin is described in the novel) would spill all the details of his secret correspondence with Ellie who is unknown to him and who he is trying to find,  to someone who claims to be her friend (Quinn). It would have been more believable if Graham would have kept his surprise to himself, having already discovered the identity of his online friend and then discreetly learned what he needed to know from Quinn.

From this point on, the novel feels slow. Quinn's behaviour towards Ellie was irritating and immature - amazingly she expected Ellie to tell her everything about her life, and when she doesn't Quinn dumps her. Yet later on when more important information about Ellie is revealed, Quinn seems incredibly ambivalent. The lengthy episode involving Ellie and Graham stealing a boat used in the filming didn't seem to further develop the relationship between Graham and Ellie. While most readers will be happy with the ending of the novel, it was for the most part, predictable and somewhat flat - a sweet uncomplicated finale.

This Is What Happy Looks Like does have some interesting characters that readers will enjoy. Ellie is a good student who hopes to attend Harvard and who reads poetry. She wasn't star-struck by Graham because she was able to develop a friendship with him unaware of his identity and therefore outside of his public persona. Although Ellie likes Graham and wants to date him, she struggles because of her family's secret. This leads her to want their relationship to be private (no cameras, no publicity). something that was mostly outside of Graham's control even though he tries his best. A relationship with a public figure means sharing him/her with the public, something Ellie was not willing or ready to accept. This felt realistic as it's probably one of the reasons why very famous people struggle to maintain relationships. Not everyone can deal with this kind of scrutiny.

Ellie was naive in believing that her personal life could remain private in these circumstances. Sadly, instead of helping her daughter, Ellie's mother's cynicism plays out. When her mother learns of her relationship with Graham she coerces Ellie into breaking off with him. This should have been a source of major conflict between Ellie and her mother, yet it wasn't developed as much as it could have been. Instead, Ellie accepts her mother's view of what will happen, which makes sense considering that Ellie is only sixteen-years-old. So she makes the difficult decision to break up with Graham. It's likely that in this situation, Ellie's mother is correct - as Graham's career develops, the demands placed on him would likely make their relationship difficult.

Ellie's mother Margaret seemed to have given up everything for privacy and seems cynical. As a person who wanted to change the world, her life didn't quite work out the way she planned. Yet, in order to protect her daughter and herself, she has made a significant sacrifice, living a quiet life in a small town running a gift shop. She wants what's best for Ellie and feels that, in the end, Graham will not offer that.

Graham is a sweet, charming guy who hasn't yet been corrupted by stardom. It's obvious his sudden rise to fame has been hard on him and his family but again that source of conflict was only briefly touched on. Graham's wit makes for interesting dialogue, at times making him a quite genuine and romantic character. Smith does a good job of portraying what it must be like to be hounded by paparazzi on a daily basis with Graham's run-in with a photographer.

This Is What Happy Looks LIke is a sweet story about two young people from very different social circles, who fall in love over a summer and then move on. As a result, This Is What Happy Looks Like was somewhat disappointing and felt like it never really quite reached its potential. This novel might have worked much better if the characters were older, in their early twenties which Ellie being in college. However, it's possible the author wanted to explore the issues around teen stars and fame.

Book Details:
This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
New York: Little, Brown & Company     2013
404 pp.

The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielson

This deeply moving novel deals with the hot topic of bullying through the fictional story of a young boy whose entire world has been undone by the ripple effects of violence triggered by bullying.  Written by Susin Nielson, author of Word Nerd and Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom, Nielson is also a script writer for the television series Heartland, Arctic Air and Robson Arms.

Thirteen year-old Henry Kaspar Larsen is trying to deal with the aftermath of his older brother Jesse's suicide - a tragedy which Henry refers to as "IT" . When Henry begins speaking "robot" after Jesse's death, his father takes him to psychologist, Dr. Cecil Levine.  Henry refuses to talk during his first sessions, so Cecil encourages him to keep a journal of his thoughts and experiences. Henry is at first dismissive of the idea, and tosses the journal Cecil gave him, but then retrieves it and begins writing. What follows are entries that are at times tragic but humorous, while revealing Henry's innermost feelings and his deep turmoil over what has happened.

Henry and his father have just recently moved from Port Salish on Vancouver Island to Vancouver where he attends Trafalgar Secondary School. His mother is not living with them because she has had a nervous breakdown and is in a mental health facility in Kingston, Ontario near her parents. Henry and his dad live in a run-down apartment complex eating take out most nights. Their obsession with wrestling and the Saturday Night Smash-Up is what keeps both of them going. Henry doesn't much like their neighbours, a widower, Mr. Atapattu who is from Sri Lanka and pushy Karen Vargas, a single woman who seems to be wheedling her way into his dad's life.

Coming into grade nine in January is a difficult for any student but especially so for Henry considering what he's just been through in the past eight months. Everyone has managed to find their group of friends and so does Henry when he meets Farley Wong, who is smart and friendly. Farley welcomes Henry but Henry is not sure he wants Farley as a friend. This is because Farley is bullied by Trafalgar's resident bully, Troy Vasic, due to his appearance; he wears thick glasses, dresses oddly and carries a briefcase. Farley invites Henry to join the school's Reach For The Top team which not surprisingly, includes a few other school misfits including a sassy girl named Alberta who is in Henry's Home Economics class. Alberta doesn't mince words, has spiky hair, several piercings, dresses eccentrically and wears purple Doc Martens.

Henry too becomes a target of Troy Vasic mainly because he is now overweight, has red hair and of course he hangs out with Farley. He wishes he could get an "upgrade" in the friend department. However, as time passes, Henry discovers that Farley is a true friend and when Farley experiences the same sort of bullying that his brother Jesse did, Henry finds his courage and acts.

Discussion

In Henry Larsen, Nielson has created a character that everyone can identify with because there's a bit of Henry in all of us. He's stubborn, loyal, witty, intelligent and a very typical thirteen-year-old boy. But he's also experiencing great pain over the suicide of his brother.

We see Henry grow throughout the story in many areas of his life. At first he doesn't like Farley, or Alberta or Mr. Atapattu. But as Henry comes to know them better, he realizes that Farley cares for him, that Alberta likes him for just how he is, and that Mr. Atapattu with his kindly understanding gives Henry what he needs most in the moment. Even Karen, whom Henry suspects is after his father's affections, becomes a good friend because she has suffered a similar loss. Karen, perhaps more than anyone else, helps Henry to understand his feelings by being honest with him. She helps him identify and acknowledge his grief over the loss of his brother, his pain at seeing his happy family unravel and his mother hospitalized, and his anger towards his brother for what he has done.

Through the use of the diary format, Henry is gradually able to write about the incident that led to his brother Jesse arriving at school one day with his father's gun, even though Henry can't bring himself to speak about "IT".  In his journal, Henry reminisces about his family's life before "IT" enabling the reader to see how his family has been affected.

To avoid overwhelming her readers with the tragedy of Henry's family, Nielson has created a narrator with a great sense of humour that is sometimes dark. These funny bits create laugh-out-loud moments and ease the tension. They make Henry, as well as many of the other characters in the novel, very realistic. For example, the battles between Karen and Mr. Atapattu over various apartment building rules are quite comical. But anyone who has lived in an apartment, including many inner-city children, will easily relate to them.

Nielson's novel highlights the wide-reaching effects that unresolved bullying can have on a individual's life. Initially, just Jesse was impacted but as the bullying intensified, it affected Henry and his view of his brother, and eventually Henry's family, the bully's family and the community at large.

The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen is a well written, thoughtful novel about bullying. Populated by wonderful, realistic characters, with a great storyline, and a satisfying ending, this novel is a great choice for readers over the age of nine.

Book Details:
The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielson
Tundra Books      2012
241 pp.

Golden by Jessi Kirby

"None of them look at me, but I'm nervous all of a sudden because right now it feels like I'm holding in my hands something I shouldn't be. Like I've just brushed my fingers over a ghost. And by all accounts and definitions, I have."

Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost hopefully has her ticket out of Summit Lakes with her placement as a finalist in the Cruz-Farnetti Scholarship. Her dream of attending premed at Stanford is now that much closer. All she has to do is write a winning speech and the scholarship will be hers.

Parker is a TA for Mr. Kinney's freshman English class. One of her final chores is to take the journals written by students ten years earlier and mail them back to them. Every year Kinney gives his students a journal after spring break and the task of writing in it for the remainder of the school year. On the board at school, Mr. Kinney writes a quote from a Mary Oliver poem, "Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"  Students then spend the last few weeks of their senior year answering this question in the journal Kinney has given them. On graduation day, students hand in their sealed journals and ten years later they are mailed back to the students using their updated addresses from the school's alumni database.

As Parker is locating addresses to mail out the diaries, she comes across the sealed journal of Julianna Franetti. Julianna and her boyfriend, Shane Cruz were the town's "golden couple" destined for a "golden life" together forever. They had been together for four years and it was expected they would marry and stay in Summit Lakes to be a part of Shane's family's business.

But a freak storm and a terrible accident changed that forever. First responders never found their bodies in Shane's jeep half-submerged in the river at the bottom of the gorge. The official statement was that their bodies were swept downriver and into Summit Lake. The golden couple are immortalized on the town's bulletin board; their portraits a reminder of what was lost.

Julianna's journal was written before her accident and Parker, in a moment of weakness, decides to take the journal home. Parker wonders why no one thought to ask about Julianna's journal and why Mr. Kinney never read it. At first Parker doesn't think she will read it but then changes her mind. Partly she does this because her best friend Kat has been encouraging Parker to take a chance in life, to try the road less traveled; to "do something unexpected that would leave me with something I could keep and remember. An experience instead of a goal." Parker also decides to read the journal because she wants to know the real Julianna, "who she was and what she wanted".

However, the journal reveals that all was not entirely golden in the life of Julianna, that she was struggling with the choices she had made and was filled with self-doubt. The revelations of the journal lead Parker to try to discover what happened that fateful night. When Parker makes several astonishing discoveries about Julianna's life, she decides to take a chance in the hopes of solving a mystery and giving love a second chance. And through her journey investigating they mystery of  the deaths of Julianna and Shane, Parker finds the courage to apply the lessons she learns to her own life.

Discussion

Golden is a novel that combines mystery and romance. Jessi Kirby has crafted an intriguing story to explore themes of identity, forgiveness and redemption, love, and the importance of being true to oneself. These are things that many young people find very relevant in their lives. The hook, the discovery of the forgotten journal of crash victim, Julianna Franetti is perfect for drawing readers into this well-paced novel. Although the storyline is predictable, there are twists along the way that make it interesting. Not only is the story of Parker's attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery of Julianna and Shane riveting but so is her journey of self-discovery.

Parker Frost, who is related to the famous poet, Robert Frost, identifies with Julianna Franetti's struggle to find meaning in her life. Julianna's life was mostly planned out for her by the choices she made. Like Julianna, Parker realizes that her life is all but planned out for her but not by her choices, instead by her mother whose life is focused on practicality and stability. But Parker is like her poet father and his relative Robert Frost - she has a need to find meaning in life, to be creative, to express herself. Like Julianna, she wants a life that's more expansive and more open to chance and change, something Parker begins to understand is a part of life.

The major characters in the novel are well developed and unique. Parker is a likable heroine, intelligent, caring and romantic. She believes in love, despite her parents divorce. Her best friend Kat, is confident, flirty, and very self aware. Kat's favourite motto is carpe diem ("seize the day") and she's the driving force behind getting Parker to seize her life and make it her own. Trevor Collins, the boy Parker is crushing on but too afraid to acknowledge her feelings for, is both humorous and sweet. At first it seems like he might be superficial, but it soon becomes evident that he truly cares for Parker.

Making the main character, Parker Frost, a distant relative of famous poet, Robert Frost allowed the author to incorporate many quotations from Frost's wonderful poems into her novel, adding to the overall beauty of the storytelling. The novel's title, Golden, is also a reference to Frost's poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay. Julianna and Shane are the "golden" couple, perfect in love with the perfect life awaiting them. But it didn't happen. Because in life, nothing is assured and nothing lasts forever. Change is part of life and that is expressed in Frost's poem:

Nature's first green is gold

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day,

Nothing gold can stay.

Each chapter has a short quote from one of Frost's poems, that are relevant to what will happen in the chapter. Readers may be familiar with some of the quotes, especially those from Robert Frost's Fire and Ice and also his well known poem, The Road Not Taken. It is truly wonderful, the interweaving of many of the ideas about life, Frost expressed in his poetry with the novel's overarching themes of choices made in life, of love and finding meaning.

Golden is by far the best young adult novel this year. Well written, well paced, with a great storyline, it would make a good novel for book clubs. The lovely book jacket has gold detailing which entices the reader to pick up this very good novel. Not to be missed! Maybe readers will get to see what happens to Parker in ten years time??

Book Details:
Golden by Jessi Kirby
Toronto: Simon & Schuster BFYR    2013
277 pp.

The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston

This young adult novel has a very unique plot involving a family in the Witness Protection Program and a young girl trying to get her life back.

Seventeen year old senior "Sissy" and her eleven year old sister "Teeny" along with their parents have been in the Witness Protection Program for the past eight months. In that time they have had to move six times after their new identities were compromised.

This time her family is moved to Natchitoches, Louisiana where they are placed in a small cottage. They are now known as Megan (Meg) Rose Jones and Mary Jones. Meg's father is given a manufacturing job and her mother is made to stay at home as she is a completely non-functioning alcoholic at this point.

Meg is determined that this will be her last move. She's lost her identity, her home, her friends, and a boy she liked. Her parents marriage is failing, while her younger sister is becoming increasingly withdrawn and unresponsive.

Seeing her family in chaos and completely dysfunctional, Meg draws up a list of rules for disappearing:
1. I will not join any clubs.
2. I will not try out for cheerleading or any other sport/team.
3. I will not make any friends.
4. I will discover the truth no matter what.

For Meg, number 4 is the most important. She is determined to learn why her family was placed in the program and why they are being moved so much. She does not want to move again.

Meg attends Natchitoches High School where, almost immediately, she attracts the attention of handsome Ethan Landry who works on his family's farm. Meg manages to get a job working at a nearby pizza place owned by Ethan's Aunt Pearl. This job gives Meg an escape from the almost insurmountable problems at home and helps her cope with the stress. She is suffering from terrible nightmares as well as a loss of memory of the events leading up to their placement into the Witness Protection Program.

Although Meg tries her best to scare off Ethan, he continues to pursue her, convincing her to let him drive her to and from school. He frequents his Aunt's pizza place where he forms a rapport with Meg's younger sister Mary, teaching her how to make pizza. This gradually begins to heal Mary and brings her out of her shell.

Although Meg tries to suppress her feelings for Ethan and to push him away emotionally, she finds him irresistible and they soon become a couple. Ethan has suspected early on that Meg is not from Arkansas and he confronts her over her identity. But Meg refuses to answer Ethan's questions, even when he confronts her later on with evidence that she is someone else. Her motive is to try to protect Ethan.

Meg attempts to find out from both her parents about what caused their placement in protection, but she is refused at every attempt. Meanwhile one of the FBI agents or "suits" approaches Meg expressing concern for her family. When Meg asks Agent Thomas to tell her what happened he tells her that if she just thinks about it she will "figure it out". This leads Meg to try to focus on what she remembers from the night of the party, even though it's obvious what she experienced was very traumatic.

When Meg's mother inadvertently reveals a clue, this leads Meg to regain most of her memory over what happened that night. She confronts her father who fills in some of the details. Meg decides she needs to take action in an attempt to free her family from the witness protection program. With Ethan by her side and some help from a few friends, Meg travels across the country to retrieve something she hopes will free herself and her family.

The Rules for Disappearing is an interesting novel with a unique storyline. It is part mystery, part suspense and part romance. Elston immediately grabs her readers interest with Meg and her family being assigned new identities and shuttled into a new life in Louisiana. The mystery of what caused her family to be placed in protection is gradually revealed through several twists in the plot. Eventually readers learn about Meg's past and the events that led to her family's current predicament.  But Elston leaves a few loose ends that will lead to a second installment in this new series.

Meg is a strong heroine who fights for her freedom and to regain her life. This is in contrast to her parents who seem unable to cope with what has happened. Her boyfriend Ethan is probably the most attractive character in this novel as he's witty, understanding and courageous. His tenacity matches that of Meg, whom he finds himself very attracted to. Elston highlights the renowned southern hospitality as evidenced by the actions of Ethan Landry and his family.

Those readers looking for something a little different will enjoy this well paced novel.

Book Details:
The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston
New York: Hyperion    2013
312 pp.

The Last Train by Rona Arato

The story open in April 1944, as Paul Auslander's father has been taken away to a work camp along with all the other Jewish men. Five-year-old Paul and his ten-year-old brother Oscar live in Karcag, Hungary. Their small town had a Catholic and a Protestant church as well as a synagogue. Everyone got along regardless of their religion. However, their last name means foreigner and Paul's father has often stated that they will always be Jews first and Hungarians second. 

At the synagogue, Paul and his family as well as the other Jewish families are told that they must adhere to a five-o'clock curfew and that their businesses and schools are now closed. They are to go home to await further instructions.

On April 27, the Jews of Karcag were told that they would be moved to an area at the edge of town, creating a ghetto. Along with Paul, Oscar and their mother, their Auntie Bella and six-year-old Kati and four-year-old Magdi would be living with them.

In the ghetto, Oscar's friend Gabor informs Lenke and Aunt Bella  that he has heard that the Jews are being placed on trains. Terrified the two women are determined to remain strong and not show their fear to Paul and the others. The gendarmes order everyone into the street and march them to the town square where they stand for hours in the hot sun without food or water. Eventually everyone is placed into the back of six canvas covered trucks that take them to the Szolnok Sugar Factory. Here a line of boxcars sat on train tracks. After three hungry days, Paul and his family were ordered into the boxcars by the gendarmes and the dreaded Schutzstaffel or SS. 

At the train station in Vienna, Austria, Paul becomes separated from his mother and Oscar. Oscar and his mother were forced into a new boxcar, while Paul ended up in another. Eventually they were reunited at the Strasshof Concentration camp in Austria. There are stripped and hosed down. For two weeks they remained in the cold barracks at the camp, fed stale bread and watery soup. In July 1944 they are taken to Guntersdorf, Austria and trucked to work on a farm growing and harvesting sugar beets. However, by September Anyu, Paul and Oscar's mother becomes ill.

On October 30, Paul turns six years old. His mother however, is growing weaker every day. In December 1944, Paul and his family were transported back to the Strasshof camp. On December 7 1944, Paul and his family along with his Aunt Bella and her two daughters arrive at Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany. Still dressed in summer clothing, Paul and Oscar shiver uncontrollably as they are made to walk to the filthy, rank barracks where this is no stove for heating. Every day they were marched outside to stand for hours in the cold.

One day Anyu saw that Uncle Elemir was in the men's camp. Despite being forbidden to sneak to the men's area, Paul goes to visit Uncle Elemir who teaches him how to whittle. By March of 1945, news that Germany was losing the war came to the camp. In April, 1945, despite the fact that the Germans were losing the war, more and more prisoners were being transferred to Bergen-Belsen. Every day hundreds died of typhus. Paul saw the pits with dead bodies whenever he went to visit his uncle. On April 9, Paul, Oscar and Anyu were put into one boxcar, one of many on a train that travelled slowly with many stops. Outside of Farsleben, Germany the soldiers were setting up machine guns to kill them when suddenly they flee ahead of an American tank.

The American soldiers help Paul, Oscar, Anyu and all the others out of the boxcar. The train has stopped in the middle of a field with a low hill nearby. The American soldiers bring people from the nearby German town to the train. When the Germans refuse to help the Jewish people, the American soldier threatens to kill their mayor if they do not provide the Jews with food, clothing, soap and a place to stay. Anyu was taken to a special hospital in Hillersleben along with Paul and Oscar. They remained there for four months until they were sent back to Hungary by the Russians who now controlled Eastern Europe. 

On the train ride to Budapest, Anyu has recovered along with Bella, Kati, Magdi, and Paul, but Oscar has a bad cough. In Budapest, Anyu and Oscar are taken to hospital as they are both still very ill, and Paul is allowed to stay, only if he has his tonsils out. Apu returns to Budapest

Discussion

The Last Train tells Paul Arato's family's story in a gentle way that still captures some of the fear and confusion his family experienced when their native Hungary was invaded by the Nazis in 1944. Prior to this, Hungary was pro-fascist and had been allied with Germany, supporting its Nazi policies. Until that time, Jews in Hungary were mainly protected from the Nazi's Final Solution policies, although they faced economic and political sanctions. Hungary participated in Hitler's invasion of communist Russia. But when Hitler discovered that Hungary was attempting to broker a peace treaty with the Allied Forces, he invaded and almost immediately began rounding up the Jewish population. This is where Paul's story begins. Paul's story, like that of many Holocaust survivors would remain untold but never forgotten, for years. The Last Train recovers one such story and how it came to be told is worth revealing.

In 2001, students at Hudson Valley High School were assigned to interview local residents and family members about World War II as part of a history class run by teacher Mark Rozell.  He wanted to make history come alive for his students in a more meaningful way and he also believed that history has some important lessons to teach young people. When the students interviewed American veterans they came across an unbelievable story about the liberation of a train holding 2500 Jewish prisoners, many sick, all starving and filthy.

It was during an interview in July, 2001 with Carrol Walsh, who on April 13, 1945, was a 24 year old American tank commander with the American 30th Infantry Division, that Rozell learned about the American liberation of a large transport train near Magdeburg. Walsh had not thought about the train until his daughter urged him to tell the history teacher about it during the interview. Soldiers had uncovered an incredible situation; boxcars jam-packed with starving Jewish prisoners. The historic liberation was recorded in photographs taken by George C. Gross, a friend and fellow tank commander who, unlike Walsh, stayed with the train overnight and into the next day. Gross' unit went to the local German's and ordered them to provide food and lodgings for the Jewish survivors.

Survivors leaving the train.

Walsh also related that he received the 30th Division newsletters and one of those newsletters had published a letter from a survivor of a "death train" asking if anyone was there when it was liberated. It turned out that this was the same train near Magdeburg that Walsh, Gross and also Major Benjamin had liberated. Walsh wrote to the editor and advised them that a better contact would be George Gross.

Rozell then contacted tank commander George Gross who was now living in San Diego, California and working as a professor of English. Dr. Gross had a negative of the most famous picture as well as ten other photographs of the liberation of the train. Rozell was then able to hear Gross' account of his time spent at the train near Magdeburg. The teacher created a website containing the interviews where they sat for four years before being noticed by a survivor from Australia. Since then the website interviews, along with help from 1st Lt. Frank Towers, has been a focal point for reuniting survivors and their liberators in a series of reunions. Many of these survivors had searched for years, in vain, for some information about their liberators and the train. 

This background sets the stage for this tiny but very informative narrative nonfiction book, The Last Train, which has been written for children, by Rona Arato who is the wife of Paul Arato, who was on the Magdeburg Train when he was just five years old.  These trains were called "the last trains" because they contained the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps who were being shunted around in an attempt by the Nazi's to exterminate the evidence of their crimes against humanity.

Arato writes that her husband's story only came out after his son, Daniel, found Rozell's website. Although she knew about Paul's past, he had never told their children, Alise, Daniel and Debbie. It was a haunting memory that she did not press him to divulge. Arato's retelling of Paul's experiences as a young child in the concentration camps is simple yet compelling. The Last Train is not graphic yet convey in some measure the terrible conditions endured, the cruelty of the German SS troops who would murder simply on a whim. This is seen when a young boy, happy that it is his birthday, is shot point blank in the head by an SS officer. Although The Last Train is about a real event, Arato has recreated much of the dialogue based on interviews and research. This has resulted in a well-written, concise account of a little known event in the liberation of Europe.

Paul's immediate family was lucky in that they all survived, although his mother never fully recovered her health and died in 1951. However, most of his extended family were murdered in the Holocaust. Eventually Paul and Oscar escaped communist Hungary, with Paul coming to Canada and Oscar travelling to Australia. Arato has included many photographs both of her family before and after the war, the liberation of the transport train near Magdeburg and the reunion of Jewish survivors and American liberators some sixty years later which help young readers understand this important historical event. 

Image of mother and child: https://teachinghistorymatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/moment-of-liberation1.jpg

Book Details:
The Last Train by Rona Arato
Toronto: Owlkids Books Inc.     2013
142 pp.

SYLO by D.J. MacHale

MacHale is both a well known television producer and children's author, having written the Pendragon series as well as the Morpheus Road trilogy. SYLO, a novel about a group of teens trying to uncover the mysterious situation developing on their island, reads like a well written television script. It's smooth, with thrilling pulses of adventure set at exactly the right points to keep the reader moving along.

The novel is set on (fictional) idyllic Pemberwick Island off the coast of Maine. The cast of characters includes fourteen year old Tucker Pierce and his best friend, Quinn Carr. Both Tucker and Quinn are transplants to Pemberwick Island. Tucker's family moved from Greenwich, Connecticut after his father who was a civil engineer,  lost his job, while Quinn's parents who are ER doctors moved from Philadephia to enjoy a less stressful work life.

Besides Tucker and Quinn, several other people round out their circle of friends. There's Kent Berringer, a junior who plays middle linebacker on the school football team and whose parents own the nicest hotel, The Blackbird, on Pemberwick Island. Kent is often hostile and bullying towards Tucker who isn't as athletic as the linebacker. Olivia Kinsey is from New York City and has been spending the summer with her mother on Pemberwick Island. She is older than Tucker and attends a prep school in New York. Tucker knows her because she is staying at The Blackbird and he often works on the grounds of the hotel. Tucker also knows cute, but odd, Tori Sleeper, whose father runs a lobster business. Todd is crushing on her but too shy to get to know Tori.

The story opens with a high school football game that turns deadly. Arbortown High freshman, Tucker watches as senior tailback, Marty Wiggins, has the game of his life. But whenever Marty returns to the sidelines, he looks anything but normal. Frenzied and wild might be more apt. Seconds after scoring another touch-down, Marty drops dead. But that is only the beginning of the mysterious happenings on Pemberwick Island.

That same night Tucker and Quinn go for one of their clandestine bike rides around the island and encounter an incredible sight, a strange dark shadow flying near the island's coast accompanied by faint musical notes. But when a brilliant streak of light destroys the shadow in a devastating explosion, Tucker and Quinn, shocked by what they have just seen, report what has happened to the local sheriff. No answers are supplied and inexplicably, the Coast Guard takes over the investigation.

Meanwhile, Tucker knows that there was something strange about Marty's death and he soon learns that Marty took a substance called "Ruby". He finds this out from a stranger, Ken Feit, who was at the football game and who approaches Tucker,  tells him about Ruby and lets him try it. Ruby is a physical performance enhancing drug that works like no other, giving a person the ability to move and react super fast. But Marty took too much and it killed him.

A few days after this, life on Pemberwick Island changes forever. After a second death occurs during the annual Lobster Pot Festival, the island is invaded by a secret branch of the United States Navy called SYLO. Both tourists and residents alike are told that there have been several deaths due to an unknown virus. The soldier in charge of the quarantine and blockade of the island, Colonel Granger, tells people that no one is allowed on or off the island. Not only are troops mobilized on their island, but the entire island is surrounded by warships.

However, Tucker and Quinn begin to wonder if the invasion has something to do with what they saw the night Marty died. Tucker and Tori witness several incidents of SYLO using lethal force against the islanders as well as taking people away. Olivia tells Tucker that she has seen people taken away from the Blackbird Inn. Soon communications with the mainland are cut.  As they begin to search for clues as to what's going on, both Tucker and Quinn struggle to determine who they can trust. It now seems that both their parents have not been forthcoming with them about what they know. And Granger is now after both of them because it seems they know too much.

Yet for Tucker and Quinn, the information they do have only leads to more questions; what is Ruby and is it related to the quarantine? is there really a virus? why are they completely cut off from the outside world? what was the black shadow they saw? why the use of deadly force on anyone trying to escape?

Tucker and Quinn decide that they have to try to escape from Pemberwick Island and let the outside world know what's going on. They formulate a plan to try to escape, and seek the help of Tori Sleeper.

SYLO is a thrilling read that combines adventure, mystery and science fiction. Each revelation in the story leads to more questions, egging the reader to continue onward. The hook pulling readers in is the death of Marty combined with the mysterious UFO sighting by Tucker and Quinn. From there on, there are more questions than answers.

The characters in SYLO, although typical, are well drawn. Tucker is believable as a fourteen year old boy, new to the football team, shy around girls and not certain about his life. He's the opposite of Quinn who is intelligent, outspoken and who seems to know what he wants in life, when he brags to Tucker that he knows he will do something great some day. Quinn was my favourite character. However, Tucker grows during the book, becoming more self-assured and determined.

Tori was intelligent, quick thinking and physically strong. In contrast, Olivia wasn't as practical minded, a softer more typical female character, but strong in her own way.

Colonel Granger, the bad-ass head of the Pemberwick operation, made me think of Colonel Miles Quaritch from Avatar. He's bold, has a short fuse and doesn't tolerate dissent.

This new YA series will have great appeal to teenage boys. It's a rollercoaster ride of suspense, with touches of humour, some tragedy, a heart-pounding climax and a hanging ending that leads nicely into the next installment due out March 2014.

Book Details:
SYLO by D.J. MacHale
Toronto: Razorbill, Penguin Group     2013
407 pp.

Documentary DVD: Orchestra of Exiles

Orchestra of Exiles recounts the efforts of  violin virtuoso, Bronislaw Huberman, to rescue the best Jewish musicians from prewar Germany and Europe to form a new orchestra in Palestine. It is a story few people outside the Jewish community remember. The documentary, which is 85 minutes in length, was written and directed by Josh Aronson, who himself is a renowned musician, a concert pianist, married to violinist Maria Bachmann.

Orchestra of Exiles begins by tracing the early musical formation of Bronislaw Huberman who was born into a poor Jewish family in 1882 in Czestochowa, Poland. Bronislaw's father was known for his bad temper but also for his passion for music. 

When Huberman was eight, his musical abilities were very much evident so his father took him to Berlin, Germany to find the best teacher and he began his studies the following year with Joseph Joachim.

In 1894, Huberman was invited to perform at Adelina Patti's farewell party and she gave him an outstanding review. His father stopped his lessons to start Huberman's career and Huberman achieved early fame at the age of 13 when he played the Brahms Violin Concerto in January of 1896. Brahms attended the concert and was so impressed he was moved to tears. Huberman played all over the world including America, Europe and Russia and he was soon acknowledged as a virtuoso.

The devastation of World War I changed Huberman, rousing his political consciousness and making him an ardent Pan-European, that is someone who believed in uniting all of Europe. He cancelled all his concerts for two years to study at the Sorbonne. During the interwar years, in 1922, the Pan-European movement which called for the unity of European states for peace was growing. In 1929, Huberman toured Palestine. He found the Jewish immigrants passionate for music but there was little culture. However, this was soon to change and that change was to be led by Huberman.

Huberman was stirred to action by the rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany, in 1933. Hitler initiated his anti-Semitic views by firing Jewish artists, teachers and performers from the cultural institutions in Germany. This meant that thousands of Jewish musicians were out of work. Many with money and foresight left Europe. While others in the Jewish community felt that they could wait the situation out and that the hatred towards them would pass, Huberman understood what was going to happen in Germany and likely all over Europe.

As a result, Huberman cancelled all his concerts in Germany. In 1934, Joseph Goebels, Minister of Nazi Propaganda enacted a law allowing musicians to play in orchestras regardless of their race. Wilhelm Furtwangler who was conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic asked Huberman to reconsider but he declined as a way of protesting the Nazi regime. By 1935, every Jewish musician in the philharmonic was gone. Huberman left Germany and moved to Vienna, Austria. He stated: "I am a Jew, a Pole, a Pan-European and by each of these characteristics I am a dead enemy of Nazism."

Although Vienna was now his home, Huberman was stunned by the indifference of the Viennese when the Jews were attacked during anti-Semitic violence. Huberman realized that with many fine musicians being fired from world class orchestras, this would be the opportunity to bring them to Palestine to form a new orchestra that would bring culture to a people who hungered for it.

In 1936, the most famous musician in the world, Arturo Toscanini refused to perform in Germany and adamantly refused even a personal invitation from Adolf Hitler. When Huberman learned of this, he met Toscanini who volunteered to conduct the opening concerts of the new orchestra in Palestine. It would be an orchestra composed of exiles.

Huberman through his remarkable foresight, knew that Nazism would spread throughout Europe and so he set began to select the best musicians from European countries. He held auditions and selected the best. The Warsaw Symphony was forty percent Jewish and Huberman knew most of them so he decided to hold blind auditions.

As it would turn out, Huberman's predictions proved correct and Nazism spread throughout Europe. Those who were recruited and emigrated to Palestine were saved. Those who were not, disappeared into the Holocaust never to be seen again. Huberman was responsible for saving the lives of almost one thousand Jews. Interestingly the documentary reveals two musicians who left Palestine after being recruited and who returned to Europe only to die in concentration camps.

Orchestra of Exiles dramatizes Bronislaw Huberman's life through realistic re-enactments. Aronson also portrays, through interviews with the descendants of some of the orchestra's founding musicians, the difficulties Huberman encountered as he worked to select musicians, obtain visas for them, permits to enter Palestine and transportation to their new home. For many it was to be a life or death situation. The documentary also explores the situation in Palestine in the mid 1930's, as strife between the Arab and Jewish nations escalated. There are many interviews with renowned Jewish musicians including Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta. There is also an interesting story involved Huberman's violin and Joshua Bell.

Orchestra of Exiles came out of the suggestion by a friend of Aronson's, Dorit Grunschlag Straus, whose father, David Grunschlag was chosen by Bronislaw Huberman to travel to Palestine as part of the new orchestra. Grunschlag emigrated along with his parents and two sisters, thus saving them from the horrors of the Holocaust. This documentary is well worth watching and tells a remarkable story about an incredible musician who put his career on hold to fight for what he believed in and to save an important part of his culture.

Image credit: https://www.gramilano.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bronislaw-Huberman-2.jpg

The Light In The Ruins by Chris Bohjalian

The Light in the Ruins is a historical mystery murder set in postwar Italy. The novel opens with the brutal and gruesome murder of Francesca Rosati in her apartment house in Florence. The novel contains three narratives, the first in italics is that of the killer, the second set in the past in 1943 during World War II, and the third in the present year of 1955 in postwar Italy.

The Murderer

The first narrative, set in italics is that of the murderer who describes in graphic detail how he murdered and dismembered Francesca Rosati. Thirty-nine-year-old Francesca's murder is committed during the early morning hours of the first Tuesday of June, 1955. The killer is able to easily break into her apartment building in a working class neighborhood in Florence on the Via Zara - a place he notes she would not have known existed, ten years ago. He then lies to get into her third floor apartment and kills her quickly but also removes her heart and places it on her vanity. His next victim will be the marchesa,  Francesca's mother, Beatrice Rosati.

As the details about Francesca's past come to light in the newspapers, the killer indicates that he plans to kill every surviving member of the Rosati family. Since Francesca's husband, Marco and their children Massimo and Alessia are dead as well as Antonio, this leaves Beatrice, Cristina, Vittore, his wife Guila and their two children Tatiana and Elisabetta. Cristina will be murdered last.

Shortly after the murder of Francesca, the killer murders the sixty-four-year=old marchesa, Beatrice Rosati in the hallway of the hotel she's staying at , slitting her throat and dragging her back to her hotel room. After Beatrice is murdered, he eviscerates her as he did with Francesca, removing her heart and placing it in a box atop a corner of the Florentine bridge that is in a painting. The killer then lays out how he now plans to kill the remaining Rosatis. Vittore's wife Giulia and their two girls, will be killed first, then he will kill Vittore and finally Cristina. The killer reveals that he plans to murder every surviving member of the Rosati family and that he has waited years to accomplish this.  He is patient, waiting for the right time just as he had to for Beatrice's murder. With each murder, he plans to cut out the heart of his victim and do something significant with it, as a sort of hint to the motive. 

1943-1944

At the beginning of the 1943 narrative, eighteen-year-old Cristina Rosati is watching planes as they fly over the Tuscan countryside. Cristina's brother Marco who is an engineer, is in Sicily making preparations for the expected Allied invasion, while her other brother twenty-six-year-old Vittore who is an archeologist, is safe in Florence. Cristina lives with her mother and father, Beatrice and Antonio, the marchesa and marchese of the Villa Chimera which is set in the Tuscan countryside, southeast of Siena. The family estate, Villa Chimera, overlooks Monte Volta and the vineyards and olive gardens. Also living in the villa is Cristina's sister-in-law, Francesca who is married to thirty-year-old Marco, as well as Francesca's two children, seven-year-old Massimo and five year-old Alessia. It is an afternoon in May and Francesca has just put the two children down for a nap. The planes are scaring Massimo who has overhead conversations about the war.

Cristina and her family are visited by an Italian, Major Giancarlo Lorenzetti and a German, Colonel Erhard Decher. Their appearance makes Cristina anxious but it turns out that they want to see the Etruscan tombs on the property. The ruins were discovered in 1937 and after an archeological dig, the artifacts of value including urns and sarcophogi were sent to the museum in Arezzo. Lorenzetti is an art historian who is hosting Colonel Decher. He tells Cristina that Decher has come to the Uffizi and has stated that "select artistic treasures may have to be moved to Germany for safeguarding until the end of the war." The Germans seem interested in Eruscan artifacts. Cristina realizes that since the war is going badly with the likelihood that Italy will be invaded by the Allies, the Germans are now interested in the theft of Italian artifacts. Decher was an architect before the war but he knows little about Etruscan history.

Vittore meets twenty-three-year-old Frederich Strekker, Decher's adjutant. Strekker is from Kesselsdorf, located outside of Dresden and his father is the curator of the musem there. Strekker tells Vittore that he loves Italy and that he served in Russia where he lost the lower part of his right leg. He is a well decorated soldier who has served in Greece, France and Ukraine. During a meeting one evening, Vittore tells Lorenzetti and Decher that all the artifacts from the Etruscan tombs are now in the museum in Arezzo. Decher informs Vittore that Herbert Kappler who is the SS liason to Mussolini is interested in the Etruscan artifacts. Vittore knows that a certain faction of the SS, the Ahnenerbe "is obsessed about ancestral German heritage." This is confirmed by Decher who tells him that the Reichsfuhrer, Himmler, is interested in the origins of race and believes there were Germanic tribes in this area of Italy long ago.

Meanwhile in Sicily, Captain Marco Rosati learns that the entire Italian First Army has surrendered and the battle at Tunis has been lost. His engineer, Moretti tells him that they will be next. Marco knows that laying mines on the beach will only delay the inevitable. The Allies will take Sicily and then move on to Italy.

Vittore, Lorenzetti and Decher along with Decher's adjutant, twenty-three-year-old Frederich Strekker leave Uffizi, the museum in Florence to travel to Arezzo. There they will be meeting up with the Rosati family  On the drive through Arezzo to the museum there, Cristina is shocked at the random destruction of parts of the city and the large number of corpses out in the open.  At the meeting with the Nazis, Cristina is captivated by Frederich Strekker and invites him to join her family at a restaurant while Vittore, Lorenzetti and Decher investigate the artifacts.

Frederich arranges to visit Villa Chimera after visiting Siena to poach a Simone Martini painting, on the pretext of viewing the Etruscan tombs. Frederich tells Cristina that he hopes the war will not come to Italy and that it will not be destroyed in the same way Russia was. Meanwhile the Ertuscan tombs become of great interest to the Germans, who want some of the relics to go to Rome and some to Germany while the Italians want them to stay in Tuscany. Cristina and Frederich share a mutual attraction and become romantically involved. Cristina's mother tells her that Frederich is a German and a Nazi who likely hates Jews and Russians.  

As Allies capture Sicily and begin invading Italy, life for the Rosati family becomes more challenging as their villa is commandeered by the Germans. Marco is now used as slave labour, repairing roads and railway tracks bombed by the Allies. But after five months, the German guards were lax and it was easy for him to slip away when he was southwest of Mount Amiata and walk to the Villa Chimera. There he was certain to find his wife and his beloved children. And he does but it isn't long before a group of partisans show up. They had been fighting in Trequanda and now have a badly injured teen girl who has been burned. It is the appearance of the partisans that will change life forever for the Rosati family.

1955

In the present, 1955, Serafina Bettini is the only woman investigator in the homicide unit in Florence. forty-eight-year-old Chief Inspector Paolo Ficino doesn't want to take Serafina to the Rosati crime scene because it is so grisly. However given her past he decides she can probably handle it. Serafina was a member of the partisans fighting against both the Nazis and the fascists in Italy. Her two brothers were murdered and with their deaths, having no other family, Serafina joined. 

In a battle between the retreating Nazi's and the partisans in Monte Volta, Serafina was badly injured by an incendiary grenade, her back, neck and arm burned. She remembers nothing of the time immediately afterwards, except that she was cared for a  nearby villa, but she's certain that is was not the Villa Chimera. 

Cristina tells Serafina that although she now lives in Rome with her mother, they have a villa in Monte Volta but no one lives there. She tells the police detective that the villa, which they called Villa Chimera had an olive grove, a small vineyard, cattle and a few horses. Serafina can't quite remember but she recalls that her partisan band had hidden from the Nazis in 1944. She remebers being wounded in "a brutal firefight at that beautiful villa near Monte Volta" as they tried to hold up the Germans so the British or the Americans could catch up and engage them. However, the Germans put up more fight than expected and her band had to fall back to villa. Now Serafina wonders if maybe "this woman's family had in fact been German sympathizers-- supporters of Mussolini--even as late as 1944..." Serafina remembers that there were many partisan groups in Tuscany as they all fought to defeat the hated Nazis and those who supported them. She learns from Cristina that Francesca's husband Marco is deceased as are their two children. Cristina tells her that they did not know the Germans had mined the estate and that is how Francesca's children died.

Serafina lives in a two-bedroom apartment on the south side of the Arno River with her roommate, an American banker named Milton and his gay lover who is a purser on the SS Cristoforo Columbo. Milton is her best friend but people believe he is her lover. Serafina doesn't know how her family would feel about her unusual living arrangements as she has no living family. They were all murdered when she was much younger.

After interviewing the tenants in Francesca's building Serafina is told by a widow that Francesca had seen someone she recognized and who frightened her and she asked the widow for the name of a locksmith. Interviewing Isabella, Francesca's boss at the dress shop, The Sunflower, Serafina learns that Francesca saw many men and that she was going to dinner with a lawyer from Bologna at the very elegant Il Latini. That man, Mario Spagnoli returns to Florence to tell the police what he knows about Francesca's last night. The coroner, Alberto Carli explains how Francesca's heart was removed from her chest - by someone using the tools of a surgeon.

Paolo interviews Beatrice who is also with her daughter, Cristina. They tell Paolo that Francesco was not well liked as she was opinionated and direct, that she was angry and judgemental after the deaths of Marco and her children. Beatrice had not seen her since Christmas of  1950. Cristina is not so convinced that Mario Spagnoli is innocent since his alibi is not convincing. That night at dinner with Milton, Serafina wonders if Francesca's murder is somehow connected to the war. Her own memories of what happened near Monte Volta are vague: she only remembers being treated for the horrific burns on her scalp and down the right side of her back. In questioning Cristina, Serafina learns that there were three men who worked with Vittore at the museum; an Italian, Major Giancarlo Lorenzetti and a German, Colonel Erhard Decher. Cristina omits the name of Frederich Strekker but states that they had been coming to the villa for a year - since 1943. Paolo is puzzled as to why someone would wait eleven years to kill Francesca, unless perhaps they were in jail. After visiting Monte Volta and talking to people who knew the Rosatis including a young man who worked on the estate, Serafina learns that Cristina was involved with a German soldier, Frederich Strekker. It also appeared to the people in the village that the Rosati's were collaborators with the Nazis. This leads Serafina to suspect that Cristina may now be in danger.

However, as she's leaving Monte Volta, the smell of mushrooms at a restaurant makes Serafina remember that this smell was what she encountered earlier in the day at the Etruscan tomb on the Rosati's villa. She returns to the tombs but it is not the mushroom smell but the images on the walls of the tombs that bring back her memory: it was in the tombs, after the British had taken Monte Volta that she was hidden and treated for her terrible burns.

As Serafina investigates Francesca's murder, and then Beatrice's murder, it becomes clear that someone is targeting the Rosati family. As she interviews Cristina and the neighbours in Francesca's apartment house, she becomes convinced that the key to the murders lies in the past, in something that happened during the latter part of the war. With her own memories of what happened to her on Monte Volta during the German retreat mostly lost, Seraphina begins to wonder what really happened at the Villa Chimera eleven years ago.

Discussion

Chris Bohjalian has crafted a masterful piece of historical fiction that weaves three narratives together, incorporating two timelines that of 1943 and World War II in Italy, and the postwar period in 1955. These narratives, at first seemingly loosely connected become interwoven into the revealing climax. Readers should be advised that this is a very gruesome novel with some very graphic descriptions of murder and corpses.

The three narratives are masterfully woven to a suspenseful reveal and a satisfying ending. Both the narrative of the killer and the 1955 timeline occur over the span of several days, while the timeline of the past describes the events during the years 1943 and 1944.

The killer gives clues throughout their narrative that they know the area around Florence very well. It seems they might know the family well, at least they do know who of the Rosati family survived the war. These are not random murders. The murderer knows the tragedies the family experienced in 1944, that Francesca struggled with depression. They state that Beatrice Rosati was not named for Dante's muse, Bice de Folco Portinari but after her aunt who lived in Pienza. It's been eleven years since the fall of Italy which suggests that for one reason or another the killer has not been able to exact their revenge until now. As Paolo suggests, this person may have been in jail.

The 1943-1944 narrative presents the tragic story of the Rosati family during the latter part of the Nazi occupation of Italy and during the invasion by the Allies. The Rosati villa was once a thriving estate, but by 1943, most of the cattle have been confiscated by the government. The appearance of the Nazis at the Rosati villa is not welcomed by Antonio or Beatrice or their daughter-in-law, Francesca who is disgusted at the Germans. Soon more groups of Italian and German officers visit Villa Chimera to see the Etruscan tombs, believing they hold a clue to early Germanic and therefore Aryan history. By this time, against the advice of Francesca, Cristina has become romantically involved with a Nazi officer Frederich Strekker whom she doesn't consider to be like the other Nazis. Francesca warns her that he is no different from the others - he is a Nazi. In November 1943, as the battle up the boot of Italy rages, Francesca prophesies,  "My family, .. is commingling with the cowardly angels. We will pay. We will all pay."  By 1944, the grounds of the Villa Chimera are mostly destroyed, its grape arbors gone. The villa had been home to the tents, jeeps and guns of the Nazis who are now leaving with the British and Americans on their heels.  

When the partisan's arrive, with a very seriously injured girl, Beatrice immediately works to help her. Enrico, the leader of the partisans confronts Antonio who tells him that he had no choice but to work with the Nazis, and that the last few weeks they have been prisoners, stating that he is no blackshirt. However, the unexpected return of the Nazis and their discovery of a British rifle used by the partisans leads to catastrophe for the Rosati family.  Believing Marco is a partisan, they torture him, beat Antonia and learn that the partisans are hiding in the tombs. This sets in motion  a series of tragic events on the villa that ripple down eleven years later to 1955.

In the present, 1955, as Serafina investigates the murders of Francesca and Beatrice she comes to believe that their murders are somehow connected to the war years. Initially Serafina doesn't believe she was near Monte Volta when she was terribly injured. However, Serafina gradually regains her memories of those fateful days when she was badly burned by an incendiary grenade when she visits Villa Chimera. She remembers being inside the Etruscan tombs where she was ministered to and has vague memories of the paintings on the tomb walls. These memories are confirmed during an interview with Cristina and Vittore who tell her that initially she was taken to the kitchen of the villa. There Beatrice brought the last of the villa's olive oil and Francesca's face cream to help treat Serafina's burns. The Germans were fighting near the villa and then returned to the villa with the British in pursuit. The marchese and marchesa had Cristina take Serafina and the partisans to hide in the tombs. The Rosatis want the partisans to leave but the leaders of the partisans, Enrico and his wife Teresa believe the injured girl will not survive being moved and so they hide in the tombs. Only Serafina and Enrico will survive.

Bohjalian weaves each of the narratives to its inevitable conclusion; the 1943/1944 narrative reveals what really happened in the closing days of the Italian campaign, as the Germans retreated through Italy, pillaging and murdering, sparing neither the Rosati family nor their beloved villa. The 1955 narrative reveals both the connection to the 1943 narrative and the identity of the killer.

The author effectively captures the moral dilemmas people often encounter during war. This is done through several characters,  including Antonio, Francesca, and Cristina.  Antonio knew what the Nazis were but he cooperated in the hopes that he could protect his family and his villa. By 1944, with his villa in ruins, he regrets his choices and he is filled with self-loathing and wonders what he has done. " He had let this one soldier into his daughter's life. Then he had allied himself with the men his second son worked with in Florence. And suddenly he had found himself giving a personal tour of the Etruscan tombs to the Gestapo chief in Rome...Herbert Kappler. He had come to Monte Volta with an entourage that filled three staff cars. He'd spent the night in the guest room overlooking the swimming pool. Dined with the marchese's family on the small plenty that remained at the Villa Chimera, while SS troopers stood guard outside the villa..."  In some respects it appears Antonio is in denial. Herbert Kappler, Head of the Gestapo in Rome during the war, would likely have been well known to Antonio, Beatrice and Vittore. He was responsible for the deportation of Italian Jews to Auschwitz and later on for massacre of three hundred thirty-five Italians in the Ardeatine Caves. And Antonia held a ball in April for the Germans and Italians who worked at the Uffizzi. Even his son, Vittore saw that this was wrong and refused to attend. Although he tells Enrico Tarantolo, a partisan, he's no Blackshirt, it's not surprising that to the villagers, Antonio would have been considered a collaborator.  In the end Antonio finds that it did not save his villa or his family; attempting to appease evil never succeeds. 

Francesca also dislikes the Nazis and knows they are evil. She advises her sister-in-law, Cristina against becoming involved with a Nazi officer. When Marco is accused of being a partisan after the discovery of the British rifle at the villa and is tortured, it is Francesca who reveals where the partisans are hiding in the hopes of saving her beloved husband.  "Deranged by terror and loss and simple exhaustion, the abyssal descent into compromise, she found herself murmuring the answer in her head and trying to understand what would happen if she said the words aloud. In her mind's eye, she saw the captain pulling down his gun. Ordering his men to the tombs. And then...

Then what? Would Muller bother to ask her or her parents why the partisans were here on their property? And if he did ask, would he listen when one of them explained that the partisans had arrived the night before and there was nothing -- nothing at all -- the family could have done? " 

In desperation, Francesca reveals the partisan's hiding place but it does not save Marco. In an act of unspeakable cruelty, Captain Mullers brutally murders Marco in front of Francesca and their two young children. Her attempt to save her husband and her children results in the deaths of the partisans. The trauma of these events lead Francesca to a life of promiscuity as a way to cope. It is clear she is drowning in self-loathing, grief and pain. And sadly her betrayal of the partisans lead years later, to her own brutal murder and that of her mother-in-law. She is a truly tragic figure in the novel and demonstrate how compromise and capitulation can play out in war.

Cristina seems to have few reservations about her relationship with a Nazi officer during the war. She is young and her attraction to the young Frederich Strekker leads to a relationship that labels her in the village. Her actions so offend her brother Vitorre that he brawls with Frederich in Florence and confronts her. "Cristina, don't you see what the Germans are? They are even worse than our Fascists!... They are taking over the country, they're stealing our art. They hate us -- they hate everyone who isn't one of them! Who knows what they're really doing to the Jews, who knows what...."  But Cristina is convinced that Frederich isn't a part of that. Vittore tells Cristina that he and Marco do not have a choice but are forced to work with the Germans, while she has made the choice to associate with a Nazi. But Cristina isn't willing to consider that what she is doing is "collaborating". It seems that Cristina has suffered little consequences as a result of her actions during the war. There is no mention of any public shaming, although she had been living with her mother Beatrice and had not married. Although she never knew his fate after the war, Cristina never gave up hope that somehow he survived the war. 

Two German characters, Captain Oskar Muller and Colonel Erhard Decher portray the brutality of the Nazis. Muller brutally tortures and eventually kills Marco Rosati in front of his wife and children because Marco refused to reveal that the partisans are hidden on the villa grounds. Colonel Decher is similarily cruel and depraved: he orders the massacre of the villagers and their priest as a reprisal, having them bayoneted and then their bodies blown up. Hoping to escape responsibility for this war crime, he steals the dead Frederich Strekker's dog tags, replacing them with his own and his pay book so that the body will be identified as his. However, it is later revealed that Decher meets his end in a most fitting way in Budapest, although his body is identified as Strekker's.

The heroine of the novel is Serafina Bettini. Serafina's parents were murdered because her father was assistant to Dino Grandi who had led the failed coup against Mussolini in July 1943. Grandi was a Blackshirt and a supporter of Benito Mussolini but he did not support Italy's racial laws nor its involvment in World War II. Chairman of the Grand Council of Fascism, Grandi was able to engineer a vote that desposed Mussolini but soon after he escaped to Spain. It was after this that Serafina's parents were murdered by the Nazis. Serafina and her brothers fled north from Rome and ended up with the partisans. For five months they stayed with them but Serafina became separated from her brothers when the Nazis began search the area around Mount Amiata. She survived by hiding with two men in a shed on a tenant farm but her brothers did not. Serafina believes the villa they were on was near Trequanda. 

After joining up with the partisans, Serafina was badly burned during a battle and taken to the Villa Chimera. Against all odds she survived, badly scarred on her right side of her head, neck and back. Serafina is unable to raise her arm above her head. In the post-war she changed her name to Serafina and was able to be hired on by the Florence police. She lives with Milton, a gay man who treats her with tenderness. It is also obvious that Seraphina is traumatized by her war experience, as she frequently self-harms. Although her partner,  It is Seraphina who quickly and astutely begins to consider that the murders of the Rosati women might somehow be related to the war. Eventually she confronts the killer, almost losing her life in the process.

The Light In the Ruins is a masterful piece of fiction that especially portrays the brutality of war on a personal level. This novel had its genesis after Chris Bohjalian read Iris Origo's memoir, War in Val d'Orcia which describes life in Tuscany during the Allied invasion of the Italian mainland. While the village of Monte Volta is fictional, as are many of the characters, some like Herbert Kappler (who was famously challenged by Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty), and Dino Grandi are not. 

Well-written, suspenseful, fans of Chris Bohjalian will enjoy this historical mystery.

Book Details:
The Light In The Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
New York: Doubleday Publishers    2013
320 pp.