Author Bio:
Karla M. Jay is the award-winning author of When We Were Brave and It Happened in Silence. She has wanted to write books since she was seven. Originally from the east coast, she makes her home in Salt Lake City. Over the years she has written in several different genres, ranging from humor to noir, but currently is focused on historical fiction. When she's not writing, she's reading, gardening, playing with her dog, or traveling to new places to try to find a story that has never been told.
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Editorial Review:
“This war isn't about bullets and fixing wounds.” I cup his face in my hands. “It's about demoralization and disorder and extreme brutality. And complete indifference on the part of whoever has the upper hand at the time. No one wins when that's the battle.”
In the massive amount of historical fiction with the setting of WWII, every once in a while one stands out in the crowd. This book, “The Puppet Maker's Daughter” is one of those stand-out novels with all the heart-wrenching and heartwarming moments scattered throughout the narrative with a perfect amount of seasoning, like sprinkling an evenly measured scoop of paprika over Hungarian paprikash.
In 1944, just months away from the end of the war, most Jewish families in Budapest Hungary believed their safety was assured. At nineteen years old, Marika, watches in horror as the Wehrmacht marches into the city, and yet, her family hangs on to the last threads of hope as the Russians approach from the east, and the Allies approach from the west. And so, they attempt to lead as normal a life as possible, even as Marika struggles with an injured fiance and her own secretive work with the underground resistance, rescuing orphans and displaced Jews, while fearing Eichmann's extermination agenda is just on the horizon.
But now more than ever, when night drops her curtain of darkness over the city, it seems my family prefers sorting through our memories rather than pondering the future. A laugh here, a head shake there, as familiar stories are retold. There's even room ot accept the embellishment we add because the exaggerated details remind us of what was real. That we are real. Memories hold us in place and will surely outlast our daily fears. What else could we cherish more than these as we all move toward uncertainty?
While most books about the war hinge on the concentration camps, this one skillfully weaves the emotional trek this young girl has as she fights to stay alive, even in the grimmest of moments. Her father, the backbone of the family, takes his passion for puppet making and telling riddles to a level which may mean the survival of his family; and Marika gathers the strength and resilience shown by her own parents and uses these well-taught skills to not only help care for the orphans, but to keep breathing day to day amid the incredible inhumanity.
Ms Jay's storytelling technique and how she takes the massive amounts of research and develops it into this story is breathtaking, especially showing the effect the war has on others of different religions who are also persecuted by the Nazis, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Catholic nuns who worked in conjunction with the resistance.
Sometimes, bravery is nothing more than gritting your teeth through emotional pain by putting one foot in front of the other on a slow walk toward the next day, the next week. That's what I tell myself many times a day.
While this is an incredible study in history, it also delves deep into the raw, brutal, and real imagery of the horrors of war – especially with the death marches imposed on those Eichmann wanted eliminated as he littered the streets and the Danube with bodies. But while the necessary depiction of these moments are told, you also see a young woman with love, compassion and strength, and whose family bonds pump through her veins, warming her, at times, and keeping her alive. Will there be tears? Yes. And for the most part, you will recognize the stark reminder of how war, in any shape or form, rips to shred the fabric of any normalcy of life... and how time and again, history repeats itself when those in power refuse to learn anything from the past. For anyone concerned about the issues in Ukraine and Russia, this is a profound book to read.
By all means, do not rush through this book... take the time to truly appreciate Ms Jay's astounding narrative, woven with such intricate skill that you are reminded of a work of embroidery art where each stitch is necessary to the complete whole. You can feel the care the author took with each and every word, sentence, paragraph, and chapter. This is, without a doubt, a must read... and one you will read again and again and again.
I used to imagine eternity must be like a set of bound photographs, where we flip through snapshots of all we've lived through. Now I pray that's not how it is. Never again do I want a glimpse of the horrors of this last year, and I sure don't want to carry them into eternity with me.
*****
“The Puppet Maker's Daughter” by Karla Jay receives five stars from The Historical Fiction Company and the “Highly Recommended” award.
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