Book Review: Far To Go by Alison Pick

Title: Far to Go
Author: Alison Pick
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: April 19, 2011
Paperback: 336 pages
ISBN: 978-0062034625
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction

From the Publisher:

When Czechoslovakia relinquishes the Sudetenland to Hitler, the powerful influence of Nazi propaganda sweeps through towns and villages like a sinister vanguard of the Reich’s advancing army. A fiercely patriotic secular Jew, Pavel Bauer is helpless to prevent his world from unraveling as first his government, then his business partners, then his neighbors turn their back on his affluent, once-beloved family. Only the Bauers’ adoring governess, Marta, sticks by Pavel, his wife, Anneliese, and their little son, Pepik, bound by her deep affection for her employers and friends. But when Marta learns of their impending betrayal at the hands of her lover, Ernst, Pavel’s best friend, she is paralyzed by her own fear of discovery—even as the endangered family for whom she cares so deeply struggles with the most difficult decision of their lives.

Interwoven with a present-day narrative that gradually reveals the fate of the Bauer family during and after the war, Far to Go is a riveting family epic, love story, and psychological drama.

My Review:

Far to Go by Alison Pick is a devastatingly heartbreaking story of one family’s struggle to survive as anti-Semitism grows as Hitler’s army advances towards Czechoslovakia.  In this psychological drama, Pick introduces readers, through the eyes of the primary narrator, Marta, housekeeper/nanny, to Pavel Bauer, his wife Annaliese, and their young son Pepik who are caught up in the turmoil and anti-Semitism brought to the Sudetenland when Hitler’s Nazi’s invade.  Pick draws attention to a less common topic of Holocaust novels, the Kindertransport, and the important role this mission played in bringing Jewish children in areas occupied by Nazis to the safety of British households.   Far to Go is an intricately woven tapestry of love, betrayal and sacrifice; all strong themes carried through by Pick’s well-crafted prose.  Although I would have liked to have read more follow through on the Kindertransport, I think Far to Go has strengths that would make for an excellent discussion group choice and recommend Far to Go to readers who enjoy WWII stories.

About the Author:

Alison Pick is the author of two acclaimed volumes of poetry and one previous novel, The Sweet Edge, a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book that was optioned for film. She is also the winner of Canada’s prestigious Bronwen Wallace Award. Currently on the faculty at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Pick lives in Toronto.

Further information about author Summer Wood may be found on her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received an ARC of Far to Go by Alison Pick from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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