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jenbsbooks 's review for:
Tears of Amber
by Sofía Segovia
I loved [b:The Murmur of Bees|42306076|The Murmur of Bees|Sofía Segovia|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1539566888l/42306076._SY75_.jpg|44927987]. As I started this ... I didn't think it was going to connect to me as much. It took a little bit, but then I was invested. Totally emotionally broken at a few points.
I have read a ton of WW2 books. This one was different, in that it didn't focus on the people (jews, gypsies, Poles, etc) as much as the German families that were just trying to live their life while this war was going on. There wasn't much focus on the atrocities to the Jews which of course is deserving of all the stories told about that, but I hadn't really realized everything many of the German (Prussian) people went through, that while they weren't facing the same things, they had to run, and starve, the men/boys conscripted.
Told in 3rd person, the POV shifts between Ilsa and Arno as the main characters (even though they are both just toddlers to start). We see many chapters through Arno's father's eyes (Karl), and Ilse's mother's (Wanda), and then there is Janusz, a Polish teen who ends up working for Ilse's family. The chapters switch between these five POVs. Many of the chapters had a heading telling the reader the POV ... but not all of them. Add into this, there were two narrators in the audio version, male and female. Will Damron narrated the chapters with Karl, Arno and Janusz as the storyteller, while Angela Dawe narrated the chapters from Wanda or Ilse's perspective. It was generally pretty easy to tell when it was one of the children's POV (the writing was more childlike, the voice, they way they saw the world), but sometimes with Janusz and Karl, I'd have to remember which storyline it was. As both storylines were both focused on families, it took me a little bit to remember which siblings/events went with which family.
The book covers years. It was interesting when there was finally some connection between the stories. There were some really hard things to read about. Kaiser. Helmut. Jadwiga. Janusz. All of it really, but those ... oomph. My heart hurt. Geese and Wolves.
I liked how the title came into play as well. I also went ahead and listened to the author's notes at the end, and really appreciated the extra insight, and I don't think I had known that Ilsa and Arno were real people and this was their story (with creative license).
One other thing I was aware of ... I'd recently listened to [b:Beyond the Tracks|54508928|Beyond the Tracks|Michael Reit|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594739996l/54508928._SY75_.jpg|84972296] which also featured WW2 story from German perspectives. There, the narration had a British accent, which really threw me. I adore a British accent, and when the story takes place in the UK, when the character IS British, I love audio and an accent that is likely better than what my imagination would come up with. But when it was German, if it wasn't a German accent all the way through, I needed NO accent. Here I had that, and it worked for me. There was a sprinkling of German throughout, but overall- most of the narration was straight. For me. Do those in the UK listening to this hear an "American" accent and feel thrown off, or are they more adaptable? What audience do most authors/publishers want to please most? Even more interesting, is that this was translated from Spanish.
Like Murmur ... this is one I'll remember, and continue to "hear" in my head.
I have read a ton of WW2 books. This one was different, in that it didn't focus on the people (jews, gypsies, Poles, etc) as much as the German families that were just trying to live their life while this war was going on. There wasn't much focus on the atrocities to the Jews which of course is deserving of all the stories told about that, but I hadn't really realized everything many of the German (Prussian) people went through, that while they weren't facing the same things, they had to run, and starve, the men/boys conscripted.
Told in 3rd person, the POV shifts between Ilsa and Arno as the main characters (even though they are both just toddlers to start). We see many chapters through Arno's father's eyes (Karl), and Ilse's mother's (Wanda), and then there is Janusz, a Polish teen who ends up working for Ilse's family. The chapters switch between these five POVs. Many of the chapters had a heading telling the reader the POV ... but not all of them. Add into this, there were two narrators in the audio version, male and female. Will Damron narrated the chapters with Karl, Arno and Janusz as the storyteller, while Angela Dawe narrated the chapters from Wanda or Ilse's perspective. It was generally pretty easy to tell when it was one of the children's POV (the writing was more childlike, the voice, they way they saw the world), but sometimes with Janusz and Karl, I'd have to remember which storyline it was. As both storylines were both focused on families, it took me a little bit to remember which siblings/events went with which family.
The book covers years. It was interesting when there was finally some connection between the stories. There were some really hard things to read about. Kaiser. Helmut. Jadwiga. Janusz. All of it really, but those ... oomph. My heart hurt. Geese and Wolves.
I liked how the title came into play as well. I also went ahead and listened to the author's notes at the end, and really appreciated the extra insight, and I don't think I had known that Ilsa and Arno were real people and this was their story (with creative license).
One other thing I was aware of ... I'd recently listened to [b:Beyond the Tracks|54508928|Beyond the Tracks|Michael Reit|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594739996l/54508928._SY75_.jpg|84972296] which also featured WW2 story from German perspectives. There, the narration had a British accent, which really threw me. I adore a British accent, and when the story takes place in the UK, when the character IS British, I love audio and an accent that is likely better than what my imagination would come up with. But when it was German, if it wasn't a German accent all the way through, I needed NO accent. Here I had that, and it worked for me. There was a sprinkling of German throughout, but overall- most of the narration was straight. For me. Do those in the UK listening to this hear an "American" accent and feel thrown off, or are they more adaptable? What audience do most authors/publishers want to please most? Even more interesting, is that this was translated from Spanish.
Like Murmur ... this is one I'll remember, and continue to "hear" in my head.