⋙ Download Gratis The True Story of Hansel and Gretel A Novel of War and Survival Louise Murphy 9780142003077 Books

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel A Novel of War and Survival Louise Murphy 9780142003077 Books

Download As PDF : The True Story of Hansel and Gretel A Novel of War and Survival Louise Murphy 9780142003077 Books

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel A Novel of War and Survival Louise Murphy 9780142003077 Books

I can be quite a book snob. If a book seems cheesy , predictable or "lifetime movieish" in the first chapter, I just can't slog through. I read many samples of books before this one, but this is the one book that not only grabbed me as a reader, but kept me. As a mother of two children it was definitely an intense read. The author successfully transported me into the setting of this book, as well as allowing me to see through the eyes of the many characters. I was moved almost to tears. I was sad to say goodbye to these characters.


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The True Story of Hansel and Gretel A Novel of War and Survival Louise Murphy 9780142003077 Books Reviews

Some in my book group were shocked at some of the graphic violence and rape scenes but most of us felt that this was telling it like it was. Yes this is fiction but we all know these kinds of people existed and the violence and sadism were real. Murphys characters came to life for me, virtually all of them, and the children are particularly well rendered. The fairy tale becomes a nightmare but the witch is a hero. This story had it all. It's an amazing story and I recommend it. I literally couldn't put it down.
This book immediately drew me in with its mix of magical realism and historical fiction. So many things in this book were original thoughts, creating images I'd never seen in my mind before. And isn't that what we're always searching for? A wonderful, new story? Both familiar and surprising? You find it here in this lux, imaginative take on the Hansel and Gretel theme. The characters were complex and individual. Their journeys were gripping. Even the settings were vibrant and unusual. I loved this book from the first page... and wish I could read it again for the first time.
Very good book. I highly recommend it. In a world where we, as Americans, have never had to endure a war like they had in WWII in our homeland it is hard to fathom what those people had to go through. Our civil war was horrendous, but it was nothing like the barbaric things that went on in Poland and the other slavic countries overseas where they had to fear for their very existence everyday. Food was so scarce that most of the people were starving. I always thought Hansel and Gretel was a fairy tale. This puts an entirely new slant on what the story really meant.
I found this to be a very interesting read, mainly because I had no prior knowledge of the brutalities faced by Poland from Germany and Russia during World War II. Like other readers, I found the story well-written but very dark in places-so dark that I had to put the book down and do something pleasant for awhile. I definitely could not read it at night.

I do recommend it because it does work the "fairy tale" premise well, and ultimately I felt a great deal of empathy for the characters.
This was a beautifully told story of two Jewish children abandoned (by necessity) in Poland during WW2, the people who rescued them, and those who were their tormentors. All of the characters - including the SS officer - were so fully drawn that you could become a part of the story through reading it. You can feel the pain of hunger and the cold of the Polish winter. The narrative flips back and forth among different characters and the very real tension that they must have felt every moment of every day becomes so real. I don't remember the last time I read an entire book in one day. As for the graphic scene of violence against Gretel, it is beyond naive to think that this did not happen over and over again during not only this war, but all wars. And as we all know, there is no horror that can be recounted in a book that can ever come close to what really happened to millions of human beings during this war. This is an outstanding book.
Another Holocaust story? Yes but the main characters are two children who escape the ghetto and find a Gypsy midwife, the witch who shelters them from the Nazis as the Russians enter Poland in the last year of the war.

The biggest conflicts are the minor ones of conscience. Should the Nazi major turn on the SS officer and his vendetta against the children and their protectors? Should the village outcast maim the children in the village in order to prevent the SS officer from removing Aryan children to be raised in Germany? Should the disgraced priest sacrifice himself to save his granddaughter and her baby? What is the right thing in a world where children must hide under assumed names, sheltered by the witch, scorned by a village too scared and oppressed to help them? And who should pay for the endless bloodletting?
I loved this book. I picked it up early for a literature class related to gender next quarter, and I read it late into the night for a few nights. The characters were complex, and I appreciated watching how each of them developed in order to survive and save each other from the brutal situation. This is a story about love, family and chosen family, and survival in a world of violence and hate. The detailed imagery was excellent. This book is dark and brutal, and my eyes teared up multiple times while reading. Highly recommend.
I can be quite a book snob. If a book seems cheesy , predictable or "lifetime movieish" in the first chapter, I just can't slog through. I read many samples of books before this one, but this is the one book that not only grabbed me as a reader, but kept me. As a mother of two children it was definitely an intense read. The author successfully transported me into the setting of this book, as well as allowing me to see through the eyes of the many characters. I was moved almost to tears. I was sad to say goodbye to these characters.