Reviews
These are a selection of reviews taken from the Goodreads website (www.goodreads.com) and from Amazon:
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This really is a cut above the many whether fictionalised or strictly biographical memoirs based on life in Poland during WW2. Harrowing as the experiences described are, the book’s merits as a piece of writing shine through. The author manages to blend pathos with suspense, maintaining narrative drive and psychological realism through a gift for dialogue. To call it a good read is not to minimise the horror of what Marta and other victims of the Nazis lived through.
Bob Dresner
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I read this wonderful book in two days. Extremely important story and very sensitively done. I loved the narrative style and shifts in perspective which gives a very rich insight into various lives caught up in a very dark historical period. The fact that the novel tells the story of the author’s own mother also adds so much authenticity and weight for the reader, and also makes it all the more heartbreaking. Highly recommend this beautiful book which reminds us all that there is indeed ‘no going back’ to such horrific atrocities and injustices.
Kendra Reynolds
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This is a thought provoking tale about a woman whose entire destiny is changed when she undertakes an ill-considered act of love.
There’s a brilliant dual narrative throughout the book; following the true story of the author’s own Polish mother, and a reluctant Gestapo officer, Inspector Bauer and his family.
The author cleverly plays with ideas of cowardice and courage through her characters on both sides of the war, whether persecuted or persecutor, and shows how thin the veil between the two can be.
This is a well researched book (no doubt with plenty of first hand insight too) and is peppered with extraordinary detail about the conditions at the time both in war torn Poland and within the camps. I was left feeling an expanded sense of understanding for the plight of the everyday Pole.
Anna’s portrayal of Marta and her rich family history gives fascinating, stranger than fiction, insights into the tragedies suffered by the intelligentsia and the dalliances of crested families!
A really superb debut novel!
Halina Wielogorska
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This is an exceptional debut novel in its ability to convey the terror and grief that affected anyone with a heart and soul, regardless of who, where, or what side one might have found themselves on.
Having read many books over the years set in these times and circumstances this particular one has left me reeling with some of the incidents and descriptions. It gave me more insight as to how these times affected everyone, from all aspects of society. In particular, the recollections noted in the diary of the officer’s wife, this could be a story in itself and I didn’t want it to finish.
I don’t know why this author has waited so long to pen this, it’s brilliant! I eagerly await her next novel.
Mary S
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A totally mesmerising story, so moving, immersing and beautifully told. Read this, plunge in and you will find you do not want to move until you have turned the final page! So thought-provoking and so much to discover in the characters and themes in this book. A gripping exploration of humanity, of our motivations and what we are capable of in the name of love (and war), in all its different forms.
Suzi Raymond
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I started to read this book and literally could not put it down; well except to sleep. A very readable style for a debut heartfelt book. I have often wondered how the German people could have supported the tyrannies of the Nazis and the Gestapo in the 2nd world war and Anna has answered this question admirably. However, the lessons we have learnt of how propaganda and control can manipulate a whole nation then is now taking place in Russia today, so history is repeating itself in the same way. Anna is a very talented writer and I can’t wait to read her future stories she must tell.
Jean Walters
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If you would like to review No Going Back and are having problems with either site, then please feel free to send me your review to anna.patrick2019@outlook.com and I will post it on this page. Thank you.
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