I Gave My Heart to Know This by Ellen Baker

Summary ~ I Gave My Heart to Know This ~ In January 1944, Grace Anderson, Lena Maki, and Lena’s mother, Violet, have joined the growing ranks of women working for the war effort. Though they find satisfaction in their jobs at a Wisconsin shipyard, it isn’t enough to distract them from the anxieties of wartime, or their fears for the men they love: Lena’s twin brother, Derrick, and Grace’s high school sweetheart, Alex. When shattering news arrives from the front, the lives of the three women are pitched into turmoil. As one is pushed to the brink of madness, the others are forced into choices they couldn’t have imagined—and their lives will never be the same. 
More than five decades later, Violet’s great-granddaughter, Julia, returns to the small farmhouse where Violet and Lena once lived. Listless from her own recent tragedy, Julia begins to uncover the dark secrets that shattered her family, eventually learning that redemption—and love—can be found in the most unexpected places. 

Well my dear Ellen Baker, you have done it again!!!  I Gave My Heart to Know This is an intricately woven tale of family, friendship, love and loss and it is simply amazing.  Ellen Baker’s debut novel, Keeping The House, is one of my all-time favorite novels and her sophomore release sits right up there with it.  This book had me reading when I could and even when I really shouldn’t have.  Baker’s mastery of character development as well as plot twists and turns kept the pages flying and are what makes her so great and her novels very memorable. 

Grace, Violet, Lena, Joe and Jago found themselves in tragic times along with many of our great-grandparents and grandparents.  The times were WWII and the U.S. was asked to make the sacrifice and help its military overseas by giving blood, sweat and tears.  Grace, Violet, Lena and their friend “Boots” joined the work force as welders and ship builders.  Relief from the dangerous work and long hours came from Lena’s twin brother Derrick’s letters from his military base in California and later the Pacific theater.  On Lena’s suggestion, Grace and Derrick became pen-pals and soon star-crossed lovers who never met but made plans for after Derrick’s return home.  That never came and from that sorrow and heartbreak grew lies, deception and more heartbreak.  The family never quite recovered from the loss of the golden brother/son who wanted to see the world. 

Baker’s storytelling crescendos throughout the story but reaches great volume when later generations discover hidden letters and secrets that tore the family apart all those years ago.  The history of our nation is rich and told well in I Gave My Heart to Know This.  Little known facts enriched the everyday actions and helped create a very realistic feeling for the reader.  I feel like these characters truly lived there on that rural farm and cried real tears.  Though most of the time the vibe of the book is sad and melancholy, I was rewarded with one of the best endings I’ve read as of late.

I can’t tell you with enough urgency TO BUY I GAVE MY HEART TO KNOW THIS ON AUGUST 2nd and while you’re waiting for that day to come TO READ KEEPING THE HOUSE NOW! Sorry for “yelling” but I felt it extremely necessary. 🙂

Thank you to the lovely, kind, friendly and interesting Ellen Baker for thinking of me when she received her galleys of I Gave My Heart to Know This and felt the need to get one to me as early as she did.  I’m sorry it took so long to finally read it!  I adore her and our pen-pal friendship.  XOXO

{Rating ~ 5 out of 5}

The Typist by Michael Knight

Summary ~ The Typist ~

Written with the stunning economy of language for which Michael Knight’s work has always been praised, The Typist is a rich and powerful work of historical fiction that expertly chronicles both the politics of the Pacific theater of World War II, and the personal relationships borne from the tragedies of warfare. When Francis Vancleave (“Van”) joins the army in 1944, he expects his term of service to pass uneventfully. His singular talent—typing ninety-five words a minute—keeps him off the battlefield and in General MacArthur’s busy Tokyo headquarters, where his days are filled with paperwork in triplicate and letters of dictation.

But little does Van know that the first year of the occupation will prove far more volatile for him than for the U.S. Army. When he’s bunked with a troubled combat veteran cum-black marketer and recruited to babysit MacArthur’s eight-year-old son, Van is suddenly tangled in the complex—and risky—personal lives of his compatriots. As he brushes shoulders with panpan girls and Communists on the streets of Tokyo, Van struggles to uphold his convictions in the face of unexpected conflict—especially the startling news from his war bride, a revelation that threatens Van with a kind of war wound he never anticipated.

If you are a regular visitor to Planet Books then you know that I enjoy reading historical fiction set during WWII.  I don’t know why this is but I can’t seem to turn away from stories set during this tumultuous time in our world history.  I have not read very many books set in Japan during this period though.  Most take place in Nazi occupied Europe.  The Typist by Michael Knight is another book that takes the reader back to the mid 1940’s but this time it is in American occupied Tokyo, Japan after the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan by atom bombs.  General Douglas MacArthur is the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in the Far East and his headquarters are in “Little America”, a few square miles in Tokyo that were spared from American bombing and left in tact.  Here we meet Francis “Van” Vancleave, a typist in the OPS department at HQ.  Because of his swift typing speed of ninety-five words a minute he is assigned to this billet.  His mother had taught him to type when he was a kid and that skill brings Van into company with General “Bunny” MacArthur himself.  

 

Van lives a quiet life in the barracks with his roommate Clifford, a member of Honor Guard Company.  Clifford brings excitement to Van’s life and through that excitement a story set during a time of rebuilding in Japan develops.  In addition to the dramas that Clifford brings, an act of kindness on Van’s part finds him in the company of The General and his family on an intimate level.  These relationships made for complex plots that I enjoyed.    Knight’s writing took to the streets of 1944 Tokyo and the culture that was redeveloping itself to fit into a modern and westernized world.  Van is a likable guy and the problems he faced are tough and probable.  I enjoyed learning about some of the history of the rebuilding of Japan and the policies and ideas that General MacArthur implemented.  Though liberties were taken by Knight I still found myself researching some facts brought to my attention throughout the story.  

All in all The Typist was an enjoyable and quick read.  The vibe of war torn Japan is heavy and desperate but also laced with hope.  The characters that Knight creates weave themselves well into the history of the time and real-life characters like General MacArthur.   My only problem was after Van is discharged from the Army and finds himself back home, creating a new life for himself the story felt like it just fell off a cliff.  It was such an abrubt ending in my opinion that I don’t have a sense of closure with the book like I find in every other book I’ve read.  Though it has left me frustrated I still enjoyed the book. 

{Rating ~ 3.5 out of 5}

 I would like to thank Kristen @ Grove Atlantic for sending me this book for me to read and review!

The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark

Summary ~ The Sandalwood Tree: A sweeping novel that brings to life two love stories, ninety years apart, set against the rich backdrop of war-torn India. 

In 1947, American historian and veteran of WWII, Martin Mitchell, wins a Fulbright Fellowship to document the end of British rule in India. His wife, Evie, convinces him to take her and their young son along, hoping a shared adventure will mend their marriage, which has been strained by war.

But other places, other wars. Martin and Evie find themselves stranded in a colonial bungalow in the Himalayas due to violence surrounding the partition of India between Hindus and Muslims. In that house, hidden behind a brick wall, Evie discovers a packet of old letters, which tell a strange and compelling story of love and war involving two young Englishwomen who lived in the same house in 1857. 

Drawn to their story, Evie embarks on a mission to piece together her Victorian mystery. Her search leads her through the bazaars and temples of India as well as the dying society of the British Raj. Along the way, Martin’s dark secret is exposed, unleashing a new wedge between Evie and him. As India struggles toward Independence, Evie struggles to save her marriage, pursuing her Victorian ghosts for answers.

Bursting with lavish detail and vivid imagery of Calcutta and beyond, The Sandalwood Tree is a powerful story about betrayal, forgiveness, fate, and love.

Where in the world do I start?  Well I guess first off I should say that I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!  The Sandalwood Tree is one of those (in my experience) rare novels that pull you in immediately and doesn’t let you go even after the last word is read.  Seriously!  I haven’t read a book as engrossing, epic, tender, scary, educating and magical since I read Ellen Baker’s Keeping the House in July 2008.  Elle Newmark’s novel, The Sandalwood Tree, provided all of those things for me to enjoy. 

The Sandalwood Tree is truly an epic journey for two “families” at opposite ends of a century and opposite ends of an era in India’s history;  The British Raj (rule).  The history lessons alone in this book made for an interesting and eye-opening experience.  I was constantly Googling words and events as I cam across them.  I wanted to learn the English meaning for Indian words and to research the history of India from 1856 to post WWII and the Partition.  Partition of British India was based on religious differences in the population.  The characters set among these tumultuous and dangerous times in India range from two women choosing to live as they please away from the rule of English society and the restrictions and expectations put on young women in the mid-1800’s to marry, have children and be silent, obedient housewives; to an American family sent to live in India during the passive protesting of Ghandi and Partition. 

First we meet Evie and her family who have relocated to Masoorla, India in the Himalayas from Chicago.  Her husband Martin fought for the U.S. in war-torn Europe and was deeply scarred by the sights he saw while liberating concentration camps.   These scars haunt him and create a deep divide in his and Evie’s marriage.  She hopes that by moving to India and standing behind her historian husband and his work that the mending and healing can finally begin.  Their son Billy is written so beautifully and makes a wonderful sidekick to his adventurous mother that I loved reading their story.  The heartbreaking relationship that is Evie and Martin was gripping and full of wonderful twists. 

After Evie discovers hidden letters from the mid-1800’s in the wall of her rented home in Masoorla we flash back almost one hundred years to the same house and meet Felicity and Adela.  They are best friends and become the only family they have through decisions and choices that leave them in a sense abandoned by disapproving family.  Their story is also a love story of sorts and also brings great things to the book.  Their India is so different yet so similar to Evie’s and Evie soon becomes obsessed by their story that unravels through the pages of Adele’s journal that she finds in the most unusual places. 

I truly LOVE this book! What a wonderful piece of historical fiction with strong female characters full of ambition and dreams. Elle Newmark’s writing is delicious and had me quickly turning pages to see what amazing description of India she had written next.

“But the morning tide took us away & eventually we came to Calcutta.  On the wharf, a rainbow-coloured crowd greeted us, a few staid Europeans in their pith helmets scattered here & there like common mushrooms in a field of exotic flowers.  The vibrancy of India makes England look like a faded watercolor, & my first glimpse of it made my heart leap, it’s gorgeousness & its great seething masses.”

Reading this book I could hear the sounds of the market place, smell the delicious and not so appealing smells of the land and its people and imagine a world so far from what I know that if it hadn’t been for Newmark’s sensational prose would still be a mystery to me. 

This book was simply, intricately and entirely fantastic!! It comes out in stores this Tuesday, April 5th.  If you are looking to be swept away and engulfed in a beautifully layered story that will hold your attention so intensely that you won’t want to put it down, then you should read The Sandalwood Tree!  Thank you so much to Grace and Atria Books for inviting me to participate in the release event of The Sandalwood Tree.  I enjoyed it immensely and can’t thank you enough for bringing this book into my life.

{Rating 5 out of 5}

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Summary ~ The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a novel of cruelty, poverty, and hope. Liesel Meminger is a young girl who has been placed in foster care by her mother. Liesel’s brother dies en route to their new home and this leaves Liesel traumatized, causing her to have terrible nightmares in the middle of the night. Liesel’s foster father begins teaching her to read on these nights to distract her from her pain. Liesel learns to turn to books for comfort. When the war begins, comfort becomes a rare state of mind, so Liesel finds ways to seek it out. Liesel begins to steal books in her efforts to deal with the cruelty of the world around her. The Book Thief is a complicated story of survival that will encourage its readers to think and to be amazed at how resilient the human spirit really is.

Breathless.  That is how I felt when I finished Markus Zusak’s engrossing, sad, yet beautiful novel The Book Thief.  It was just last night that I clicked through the last page of this book on my Kindle.  The tears wouldn’t stop and I was blubbering and gasping for breath.  Hubby woke up concerned about what I was so upset about and he couldn’t believe it was the book I was reading.  I haven’t had such a strong, ugly cry reaction to a book since I read Marley & Me a few years ago. 

The Book Thief takes place in Molching, Germany and focuses on a little girl named Liesel Meminger.  She must leave the custody of her mother and go live with a new set of parents.  Foster parents who love her in their own unique ways.  One openly and one in sometimes hurtful and curious ways.  Zusak’s story takes care with his story telling and as the book progresses the reader really gets to know the characters, tone of the times, the town of Molching and Himmel Street, the world of The Book Thief. 

I love this book!  For some reason I am drawn to novels set in WWII.  I don’t know why since it’s such a horribly depressing and evil chapter in the world’s history but the stories of human triumph, tolerance, hatred, risk and strength really draws me in.  I was especially taken with The Book Thief because of the lovely twists that make this story stand out against the previous WWII historical fiction books I’ve read over the years.  Liesel’s birth parents were Communists.  I thought that was such a fresh idea!  Silly as it sounds I really loved the moment when I figured it out and even mentioned it to Hubby.  The life that she gains when she leaves the care of her mother and joins the Hubermann household is full of love, friendship, adventure, common thievery and the magic that occurs when one learns to read and can be removed from the present and taken into a world apart.

I have discovered that a film is being made of this book.  I beg you (yes BEG YOU!) to read the book first.  Let the words create the characters, their appearances and the world they live in first.  Your imagination will take care of the rest. 

I had this book on my Kindle for a while now and I would like to thank Beastmomma for choosing it for our book club’s selection this month.  I think I would have read it eventually but now that I have I can’t imagine that I didn’t read it as soon as I downloaded it!

{Rating ~ 5 (billion) out of 5}

Book Review ~ How To Be An American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

Summary ~ How to Be an American Housewife is a novel about mothers and daughters, and the pull of tradition. It tells the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American GI, and her grown daughter, Sue, a divorced mother whose life as an American housewife hasn’t been what she’d expected. When illness prevents Shoko from traveling to Japan, she asks Sue to go in her place. The trip reveals family secrets that change their lives in dramatic and unforeseen ways. Offering an entertaining glimpse into American and Japanese family lives and their potent aspirations, this is a warm and engaging novel full of unexpected insight.

Since leaving Okinawa, Japan in May 2009 I hadn’t really missed it more than the expected pang for a friend or a certain food that I just can’t seem to find in the D.C. area even though I could probably make it myself.  That was until I read How To Be An American Housewife.  Margaret Dilloway has written a novel that is very special, interesting and could even be used in a social study of a Japanese/American marriage and the adjustments needed in order to make it through the day-to-day. 

Shoko-chan (“-chan” confused me because I was only familiar with the more formal/respectful “-san. Turns out “-chan” is attached to a name as a term of endearment like when calling a child “Yoko-chan! Dinner’s ready! You learn something new everyday!) survived the atomic bombing on Nagasaki, Japan in 1946.  Though the radiation probably affected her heart she continued to lead a full, at times drama enriched life as an “American housewife” after meeting an American G.I. while working the gift shop counter at a hotel near a U.S. military base.

The first part of Dilloway’s debut novel is told from Shoko’s point of view.  That included reading her spoken thoughts in broken English as a way to get across her lack of knowledge of the English language.  Usually writing dialogue this way with an accent comes across as distracting and annoying to me but because my ear is used to hearing the Japanese/Okinawan voice speaking this way in person it made it more realistic and easier to understand and imagine hearing Shoko-chan’s voice in my head. 

Part 2 is where we get to know Shoko’s daughter Sue and see Shoko through her eyes.  We also get to experience rural Japan through Sue and her daughter Helena’s “American” eyes as a first time visitors to the country and not being all that familiar with conversational Japanese.  Turns out Shoko didn’t speak Japanese very much as she was raising Sue. 

How To Be An American Housewife is a very good novel about a cross cultural family.  I enjoyed the social experimentation that this book can be viewed as and the quotes before every chapter from an imagined handbook titled “How To Be An American Housewife” cracked me up and had my jaw dropping to the floor.

{Rating ~ 4.5 out of 5}

I would like to thank Victoria Comella for sending me a review copy of How To Be An American Housewife!!  You’ve been great Victoria!  Thank You!!

Book Review ~ The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

From Amazon: Book Description ~ This work was set in Berlin, 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But, Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than what meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

I decided to read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne after reading Lisa’s review last week over at her blog, Books on the Brain.  I am glad I did.  This book is in the young adult book category.  It had been a long time since I had read a YA fiction book and I was reminded of what I thought when I used to read books for my age group growing up.  I thought that I didn’t need to be reminded of different points throughout the book but the way Boyne handled this was very good.  Just certain fictional facts about each character were repeated everytime the subject came up but it wasn’t too distracting.  (Just a personal thing.)

I have read a few historical fiction books set in WWII in the couple of years but none that handled the concentration camps with so much care and subtlety.  Because the story is seen through the eyes of Bruno, a nine year old boy and a naive one at that, the details of what is really happening at his new home in “Out-With” (Auschwitz) are not really brought to the forefront and made clear.  I had a blond moment and was so wrapped up in the story through Bruno’s eyes and I didn’t get that “Out-With” meant Auschwitz for a little bit.  I exclaimed with a big “Oh!” when it hit me.  (I’m not always with it people.  Give me a break.  LOL)  I think that if I had been in high school or even junior high when I read this, I would have been a bit confused.  I didn’t have WWII history until tenth grade I think.  I mean we learned about WWII and when it happened in earlier grades but details like the gas chambers and starvation weren’t in text books till later. 

The story held up and kept my interest throughout and thanks to Lisa’s review I was anxious as I read, especially towards the end, as I waited and wondered what was going to happen to Bruno and especially his friend Schmuel, who lived on the other side of the fence that separated the camp from Bruno’s new home.  The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is an easy read for adults and a good one at that.  I don’t think, like with any book that is set during such an awful time in our world’s history as WWII and the concentration camps, you can say it’s an enjoyable read but it is a clever story that is told well and makes you think.  Sometimes that is just as important as an enjoyable read.  

{Rating ~ 4 out of 5} 

Book Review ~ Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Summary ~ Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay ~ From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.De Rosnay’s U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand’s family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay’s 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia’s conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah’s trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down.

Using a perfect blend of historical fiction and women’s literature, Tatiana de Rosnay has delivered a wonderful, heartbreaking and most memorable novel in Sarah’s Key.  Like De Rosnay’s character, Julia, I was not aware of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups in Paris during WWII.  I love reading historical fiction because if the author did their job correctly, the historical aspect of the story is told well and accurately, the book leads me to questions and to finding more answers. 

Sarah’s Key is not a happy book by any means.  The two main characters de Rosnay introduces to the reader are Sarah and Julia.  Sarah was a little girl, living her life in Paris, France with her loving parents and little brother, when the Nazis started to ravage Europe.  The French police, working in time with the Germans through fear, rounded up Jewish families from all over France, but in this story the focus is on the Paris round up that led to the Vél’ d’Hiv’.  Thinking it was best to hide her younger brother during a raid on her family’s home, Sarah locks her brother in their secret hiding spot, a hidden cupboard in their room, and promises to return soon to free him.  Her plan goes up in smoke when she realizes that she and her parents are being deported from Paris along with thousands of other Jews. 

Flash forward to 2002 and we meet Julia.  An American, living in France for half her life, married to a Frenchman and the mother of a lovely and quizzical tween girl.  Julia is a journalist for an American magazine in Paris.  She gets assigned to cover the sixtieth anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’.  While researching this horrible event in France’s history she discovers the story of Sarah and her family and the ties her in-law family has to them.   Julia is not only bombarded by the harsh discoveries of human suffering she makes while researching her article, she is also suffering in her personal life.  She is faced with decisions she never dreamed she would have to make and finds that life can’t be planned and doesn’t always turn out how you thought it would. 

To talk about the way the book read for a moment, I really liked how de Rosnay didn’t call Sarah or any of her family members by name until later.  It was representative of the thousands and thousands of Jews who were, in a word, exterminated by the Nazis in WWII.  We are like the people of Europe who didn’t do more than watch the Jews drag themselves, unwillingly out of their hometowns and to the camps.  The conditions described in Sarah’s Key were told so explicitly that I felt sick to my stomach at times.  That this is only a fictional re-telling of what happened every day is eye-opening. 

I believe that Sarah’s Key should be read by many and, like Julia, I hope that the horrors of WWII are never forgotten.  As the years go by we are losing war veterans and Holocaust survivors daily.  After they are all gone we will only have history and stories like Sarah’s Key to help us remember.

{Rating ~ 5 out of 5}

Book Review ~ The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee

Summary ~ The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee ~

In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese, with terrible consequences for both of them, and for members of their fragile community who will betray each other in the darkest days of the war.

Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the colony’s heady social life. She soon begins an affair, only to discover that her lover’s enigmatic demeanor hides a devastating past.

As the threads of this spellbinding novel intertwine and converge, a landscape of impossible choices emerges—between love and safety, courage and survival, the present and, above all, the past.

Janice Y. K. Lee’s The Piano Teacher was not what I expected.  Not in way of the story but in how I wished to love it from beginning to end.  The first sixty pages or so were slow, unable to grasp my attention for more than a few moments at a time and were full of characters that I couldn’t become emotionally invested in.  Then the arrival of WWII and all that came with it turned the great city of Hong Kong and it’s civilians upside down and with those events a new book emerged to me.  A book full of mystery, deception, love, risk, and horrific descriptions of how brutal war can be. 

The Piano Teacher is the story of a young British woman named Claire, fresh off the boat in Hong Kong and fresh into a world she didn’t know existed.  She is married to Martin, an older Englishman who concerns himself with work at the Waterworks plant and not with the events that soon fill up his wife’s days.  Claire surprises herself by taking up a position with a Chinese family as their young daughter’s piano teacher.  The affiliation with the Chen’s opens a new world to Claire, full of party invitations, a whole new circle of people and an introduction to Will, the man who will sweep her off her feet and change her life forever.  Will has a story to tell but he doesn’t share details easily.  The first part of The Piano Teacher flips between 1952 and Claire’s torrid affair with Will and ten years prior, telling the stories of Will before WWII and the love of his life, Trudy.    

The Piano Teacher is a rich, disturbing and refreshing look at WWII.  It shows the reader the horrors that more than likely occurred on the other side of the world.  Living in Okinawa, I am familiar with the history of the Japanese invasion of this little island.  In The Piano Teacher you read of the Japanese invasion of another small area of the Orient.  If you are a fan of the 1987 film, Empire of the Sun, this may be the book for you.  Empire of the Sun is one of my all time favorite films based on the autobiographical novel by J. G. Ballard which tells the story of a young boy who is separated from his family when Japanese Forces invade Shanghai and he is sent to a work camp where he survives the war. 

If you have the patience to get through the first few chapters of The Piano Teacher, and maybe you will love it right from the start, this book is worth the time investment.  The characters become vivid and the story builds and builds as the war escalates and reaches the corners of the globe. 

{Rating ~ 3.75 out of 5}