Maggie Brookes

This story needed to be told. Over here, in North America, not much is known about the Spanish Civil War which was fought from 1936 to 1939. I had read Hemingway's book "For Whom the Bell Tolls" many years ago. That book captivated me. In my opinion, I think it was his best novel. This book takes a different look at this war as it shines a spotlight on the hopelessness and need of a country at war, and focuses on the relief efforts of volunteers from all over the globe who have come to Spain to help the refugees. The work that they did, especially the British and American Friends (Quakers), was gratefully accepted by the millions of refugees, and actually The Friends movement was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the work they did in this war. These tireless, kind people were the only aid that the stranded refugees had. I liked most of the characters in the book. They were living, breathing people that kept this story together. Some of the characters were based on actual historical people, and others were fictional, but both were excellently portrayed. The book takes us from small, rural Hertfordshire, England to the cities of Lisbon and Barcelona, and all over Spain where furious battles were being fought. Lucy Nicholson is a young woman who follows beloved family friends to Spain. One of the brothers has gone over to fight in the British International Army for the Communists, and the other brother is going over tow work on Franco's side as a member of the Roman Catholic Church to chronicle the war for the Catholic papers. They are on opposite sides of the maelstrom, and both do not see or talk to each other again because the rift between them is too great. Lucy is worried for both brothers, and is convinced that she should be able to bring them home unharmed. As the war takes hold and decimates Spain, Lucy, who has signed on as a volunteer, is working with the Friends group which is looking after the refugees and trying to provide food and lodging for them. Lucy is a strong woman and she loves the cause that she is working for. Along the way she finds a strength that she didn't know that she had, and a cause that she will champion for the rest of her days. She also finds herself caught between the two brothers as has to find a way to manage that. This is a gut-wrenching historical fiction book, that will enthral you from beginning to end.… (mais)

Fantastic story and fantastic writing! Although this is loosely based on a real life couple, told to the author from a third party, the author did an amazing job with her research of what POW must have endured.
Izzy and Bill meet while he's one of the prisoners working on her parent's farm. After a whirlwind, secretive romance, they wed without her mother's knowledge) and set out to find her father and brother. With Bill being an escaped prisoner, and Izzy dressed as a boy, they are eventually caught and brought to a POW camp. There, they meet my favorite characters... Ralph, Max, and Scotty, the fellow POW men who befriend them and guard the secret of Izzy's gender.
It's a typical gut-wrenching depiction of the realities of war, the horrors of POW camps, and the Nazi destruction to humanity. But it's more than "typical." It's a story I know I will read again and highly recommend to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. Although I received this book through NetGalley, it's a book I'm purchasing for myself so I can read it again.
Reading this story during the COVIE-19 pandemic hits home even more. Stuck at home with plenty of food to eat, the freedom to walk outside, heat, air conditioning... is far from the true suffering of people during the war.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this amazing story!… (mais)

Bill is a British POW who quickly falls in love with the family's daughter while assigned to a Czechoslovakian farm. Izzy, convinced that she will always love Bill more than anyone else, finds a priest willing to secretly marry them. With the Red Army on their way, Bill and Izzy have a tough decision to make. If he leaves her behind, she'll have no protection from the Russians but if she comes with back with him to the camp, she has no protection under the Geneva Convention either. Izzy decides to enter the camp, assuming an identity as a shell-shocked, mute POW named Cousins. It's not too long before Bill discovers he cannot keep Izzy 's secret alone and after consulting a trusted block master, a few men are enlisted to help the couple. They make sure she is never left alone with a guard, they shield her as much as possible in the latrine and they shave their own beards so that her hairless chin does not make her conspicuous. In return, Izzy is fiercely loyal to her protectors, encouraging their spirits, tending to their wounds and searching out provisions. While on assignment at a quarry, Izzy and these men become family and their bond is further tested during a grueling forced march back to Germany ahead of the Russians.
Though the fine details have been made up for the book, the story of Bill and Izzy is a true one - told to the author by a man who heard about them in the camp. I have read a lot of WWII books, many inspired by true stories, but I've never read one about a woman passing in a man's camp. I enjoyed Izzy quite a bit. She's young and naive and has to grow up quickly but she's also practical in a farm-girl way. I liked how at times she would really lean-in to her alter-ego Cousins, and trying to act like she thought that he would act gave her the strength to keep going.… (mais)