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A review by lavanda4
The Pact by Roberta Kagan
4.0
The title The Pact could not be more apt...the words conjure up many images, many possibilities. Is the pact kept? Is it not? This harrowing book is about sisterhood, class disparity, courage, love, hope, shame, hatred, jealousy and forgiveness. Twists, turns and surprises wait around the sunniest and murkiest corners. My emotions were all over the place as I read, anxious to turn each page, eager to discover more.
In 1929 in Austria Jews are persecuted. Young girls Anna, Bernie and Elica become friends under unusual circumstances and make a blood pact to become Sisters in Blood to help each other out always. Their backgrounds are very different...Anna is a Jew from a wealthy family and Bernie and Elica are both poor Gentiles. As time goes on, the new führer is spreading his hateful "filthy Jew" ideology and shockingly, even friends and neighbours turn each other in, sometimes out of spite or retribution, other times from fear or in need of protection. A fourth girl, Dagna, joins the group but for the wrong reasons. As you imagine in a story containing a mix of Jews and Gentiles during such turbulent times, there are bound to be mental and physical skirmishes.
The class divide is evinced at the girls' birthday parties and by the reactions of their parents to girls beneath or above their class. Political standings can make or break relationships. As the girls grow older they develop their own ideas and go separate ways, though meet when possible. Easier said than done. Wealthy Jews have everything taken away and are reduced to nothing as they, too, are "subhuman". The girls fall in and out of love and must make difficult moral and ethical choices. Meanwhile, the world changes all around them as their worlds within change.
Author Roberta Kagan writes with a powerful and insightful drive as she fills her books with minutest details and matters of the heart, not to mention the intense sorrow and pain of war. She also describes her inspiration for her new series.
Historical Fiction readers who do not know author Roberta Kagan, now is the time! Talk about an excellent place to start in the genre. And for those who do, you are sure to enjoy this book very much.
In 1929 in Austria Jews are persecuted. Young girls Anna, Bernie and Elica become friends under unusual circumstances and make a blood pact to become Sisters in Blood to help each other out always. Their backgrounds are very different...Anna is a Jew from a wealthy family and Bernie and Elica are both poor Gentiles. As time goes on, the new führer is spreading his hateful "filthy Jew" ideology and shockingly, even friends and neighbours turn each other in, sometimes out of spite or retribution, other times from fear or in need of protection. A fourth girl, Dagna, joins the group but for the wrong reasons. As you imagine in a story containing a mix of Jews and Gentiles during such turbulent times, there are bound to be mental and physical skirmishes.
The class divide is evinced at the girls' birthday parties and by the reactions of their parents to girls beneath or above their class. Political standings can make or break relationships. As the girls grow older they develop their own ideas and go separate ways, though meet when possible. Easier said than done. Wealthy Jews have everything taken away and are reduced to nothing as they, too, are "subhuman". The girls fall in and out of love and must make difficult moral and ethical choices. Meanwhile, the world changes all around them as their worlds within change.
Author Roberta Kagan writes with a powerful and insightful drive as she fills her books with minutest details and matters of the heart, not to mention the intense sorrow and pain of war. She also describes her inspiration for her new series.
Historical Fiction readers who do not know author Roberta Kagan, now is the time! Talk about an excellent place to start in the genre. And for those who do, you are sure to enjoy this book very much.