I was given the paperback of this book and finally got around to reading it. It interested me as a true story written by the son-in-law of the people involved, so I thought there would be a lot of first-hand knowledge.
Josefine does what she can for the partisans in Slovenia during WWII. When her brother is captured, she does what she can to try and figure out what happened to him. It leads her to a local prisoner of war camp, where she briefly meets Bruce. A lot of time passes before they meet up again.
Bruce comes from New Zealand to fight but is eventually captured due to an infected arm wound. He was on the run, but the wound forces him to make a decision he isn't happy with. After being captured, he's hardly a model prisoner, and it takes quite a long time before he finds himself in a position to talk to Josefine again.
This is definitely a fictional representation of the relationship by these two. I thought the author had more interaction with the subjects of the book, but in the appendix, it sounds like Josefine and Bruce didn't like talking about their wartime experiences. After Bruce died, Josefine agreed to talk, but tragically died in a car accident a few days before she was scheduled to talk to the author. He does have information taken from the children and letters between Bruce and Josefine.
This was a good book, if you look at it as a fictionalized memoir or one of those "based on true events" stories. The writing was pretty good, and I commend the author for telling the story of these two. Even if you remove the fictionalized aspects, the story is amazing and worth telling. Good Book!
No comments:
Post a Comment