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Das Kastanienhaus (2013)

by Liz Trenow(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

3442381185 (ISBN13: 9783442381180)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Blanvalet

review 1: The time period is just before WWII began. Lily Verner is 18 and the daughter of a successful owner of a silk manufacturer in England. Lily has aspirations to move to London and go to school. Her father makes a bargain with her, she must work at the mill first starting as a weaver for a period of time before he will pay to further her education. Then the war breaks out. As the Nazis begin to segregate the Jewish families, and their safety is in question, many of the children are transported to England by a program called Kinder-transport. Some of the contracts fall through and the children are left in a camp without sponsors. Lilly's family decide to sponsor three teenage Jewish boys and hire them to work in the silk mill. As the demand for silk production increases becaus... moree of a need for silk parachutes, the mill expands. Lily realizes she likes working at the mill and is drawn to Stephan, the oldest of the three teenage German Jewish boys. As the war continues, the English people become wary of the German aliens and Stefan and his two friends are arrested and transported to Australia (as occurred to many of those children in history). The book is told through the memories of Lily, now 80 years old. At the beginning of the book, Lily's husband has just died but we do not learn until the last chapter who he really was. Each chapter begins with a small paragraph teaching us about the history of silk. We learn about the difficulties involving the manufacture of good quality silk as well as the difficult living conditions for the English people during the war years. I enjoyed the historical events of that time period as well as the history of silk.
review 2: This book is the very definition of a holiday read, in that it's probably not the sort of thing I would usually read but I was looking for something light and easy to take away with me. The fact that it was free to download for my Kindle also played a part.Though I didn't have enormously high expectations when I started the book, I really enjoyed it and read it very quickly as I wanted to know the outcome. The silk factory setting wasn't something I'd seen before so was enjoyable and I found most of the main characters attractive and interesting. I found myself crying at the end of the book, which is not something I do all that often.I had a couple of niggles around some of the language used belonging more to now than to the 1930s and 40s, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book.A great, involving beach read. less

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