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Book Club
This month's book reviews are Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks and Settela’s Last Road by Janna Eliot.
Reviews by Imogen Topliss, Anne Frank Trust Intern
Settela's Last Road
Settela’s Last Road tells the story of a young gypsy girl and her family living in
The story of Settela and her family is written simply but powerfully. It serves as a reminder of the atrocities of the Nazi party and of those who suffered under its discriminations. However Settela’s desire to escape and to live out the rest of her life, finding her father, learning to read, gives the book a confident narrative.
Settela Steinbach was a real gypsy girl who died in Auschwitz. There is a photograph of this girl which inspired Janna Eliot as well as artists and singers. Settela has become an image representing the suffering of the Gypsies and of persecuted children under Nazi rule. Her memory has been preserved through her photograph and teaches us, as does the Diary of Anne Frank, of the Holocaust and the Second World War.
Birdsong
"Birdsong is a novel about war, struggle, friendships and love- all of these are themes which are relevant to the Diary of Anne Frank. Both Stephen and Anne have important friendships which keep them from losing the sense of reality amongst all the chaos which surrounds them in the wider world. For Anne this friend is her diary Kitty, whom she confides her fears and her hopes; for Stephen it is a woman he grows to love after the war has ended"
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Birdsong follows the story of an Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, and depicts his life against the backdrop of the First World War. Stephen is a young man as he travels to
I found the novel extremely powerful. The scenes describing the trenches are quite horrendous as you learn how they lived and fought in cramped, dirty conditions, suffered the terrifying shelling and were constantly fearful of the next attack. However it is not all doom and gloom, the storyline between Stephen and Isabelle kept me intrigued throughout the book and I shared the excitement his granddaughter felt upon discovering Stephen’s diaries.
Birdsong is a novel about war, struggle, friendships and love- all of these are themes which are relevant to the Diary of Anne Frank. Both Stephen and Anne have important friendships which keep them from losing the sense of reality amongst all the chaos which surrounds them in the wider world. For Anne this friend is her diary Kitty, whom she confides her fears and her hopes; for Stephen it is a woman he grows to love after the war has ended.
Birdsong would be suitable for those above 14 years of age.
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