The True Story of Hansel and Gretel
By Louise Murphy
(Penguin (Non-Classics), Paperback, 9780142003077, 320pp.)
Publication Date: July 29, 2003
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook
Categories: Historical - General
 |     |
In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed "Hansel" and "Gretel." They wander in the woods until they are taken in by Magda, an eccentric and stubborn old woman called "witch" by the nearby villagers. Magda is determined to save them, even as a German officer arrives in the village with his own plans for the children.
Combining classic themes of fairy tales and war literature, this haunting novel of journey and survival, of redemption and memory, powerfully depicts how war is experienced by families and especially by children, and tells a resonant, riveting story.
Louise Murphy, winner of a Writers Digest Award for formal poetry, is the author of the novel The Sea Within and a book for children, My Garden. She is a regular contributor to numerous literary and poetry journals.
"This harrowing portrayal of the daily ordeal of Poles caught up in the German occupation-Gentiles as well as Jews-makes this a page-turner as well as a moving testament to the human will to do good and survive despite all odds. Highly recommended." —Library Journal
"[S]earing narrative transforms the old archetypes.... [A] gripping narrative" —Booklist
"A provocative transformation of the classic fairy tale into a haunting survival story set in Poland during WWII, Murphy''s second novel (after The Sea Within) is darkly enchanting. No reader who picks up this inspiring novel will put it down until the final pages, in which redemption is not a fairy tale ending but a heartening message of hope." —Publishers Weekly
This book is on these lists:
Cagold's Wish List by cagoldJabm1306's Wish List by jabm1306
Books I want to Read, but also Need. by anna.rimel
All lists >>
 |
1Q84 Haruki Murakami Knopf |
 |
The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
 |
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes Knopf |
 |
Death Comes to Pemberley PD James Knopf |
