I really struggled with rating this book. I liked the idea of the story but I found the execution a little awkward.

From December 1938 to September 1939 approximately 10,000 Jewish children left the countries of Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland and Germany for England on organised transports that came to be known as the Kindertransport. A number of different organisations and religions were involved in the huge project of saving the children's lives as it became apparent in the late 1930s that Hitler was determined to exterminate all traces of the Jewish race in Europe. The intention was that after the war the children would be reunited with family members, but of course only a very few of the children ever saw any family members again.

This is the story one such family who gave their son a second chance at life by putting him on one of the trains that would ultimately take the boy to a new and safe life in England. Pavel and Anneliese Bauer are a young couple of Jewish descent but non-practising. They live in a town in the Sudentenland, which prior to WWI was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. After the war, the area became part of the newly created Czechoslovakia. Being populated mostly by ethnic Germans, it was high on the list of priorities for Hitler to reclaim in the expansion of his German empire.

The Bauers live a very comfortable life with their five year old son Pepik and the boy's nanny, 21 year old Marta. The story is told from Marta's point of view. She would appear to have no family; she considers the Bauers her family and even though she is their servant she seems to genuinely love and care for them, especially Pepik. She is young, naive and finds herself increasingly conflicted as Hitler and his Nazi tentacles rapidly spread across Czechoslovakia. She is seduced by Pavel's married business partner, the latter realising how much he has to gain by being Pavel's friend and ultimately his betrayer. Marta is possibly typical of how many non-Jewish people found themselves behaving during these years. Jews had been part of their communities forever, and they now found themselves having to face actions and make decisions that they probably knew were wrong, but didn't know how to deal with.

As for the Bauers, they refuse to believe that the world as they know it is going to end and, as time goes by they realise they have left it too late to get out of Czechoslovakia. And so they have to make the heart breaking decision to send their child away, never knowing what may have happened to him.

Running parallel to Marta's story is the story of another woman, a researcher who, in the present day, is putting together the stories of the children who came to England on the Kindertransport. This character is important to the story, but it does take a frustratingly long time for the relevance to show itself. It is almost as if we are fed titbits, enough to keep us interested but not enough to tell us all!

I am not giving anything away by saying that, as one would expect, the story is heart-breakingly sad. Jewish parents left in Prague was never going to end well, and many of the Kindertransport children did not have happy childhoods in their new lives. The book is beautifully written; we feel the Bauers pain and confusion, Marta's conflicted life, and the sadness that is inevitable.

The author herself is half Jewish. Her grandparents fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and took five years to make their way to Canada. Still frightened they raised their children as Christians and it was not until the author was a teenager that she discovered her heritage. Her grandparents' pre-Holocaust life
inspired her to write this story which was long listed for the Man Booker Prize 2011.

I wanted to like this more than I did. It did shine a light on the Czech experience, however, which was interesting.

A very moving story of a Jewish family living in Czechoslovakia in 1938/39 as Hitler makes his move through the Sudetenland. At times it was like watching a horror movie - I kept wanting to yell out "run, run! He's going to get you!!". The descriptions of distraught and desperate parents at the train station forcing their children onto a "kinderstransporter" to London had me in tears. I cannot even begin to imagine the horror and desperation. A cleverly crafted and well written book. Am sure it will make it into the Man Booker shortlist (has been longlisted).

This book provided a fascinating account of the anti-Semitic machine of Hitler's army as they began to annex Czechoslovakia in 1938. This story is told from two perspectives: a Holocaust archivist who has discovered a tangible connection to her area of specialty and a young Czech nanny in charge of a 6-year old boy named Pepik, son to wealthy secular Jews. When political decisions are made within Eastern Europe this family tries to leave their home for safety. However, Nazism proves too powerful and the only person who can leave is little Pepik, who manages to be evacuated on a Kindertransport to Scotland. I found this novel to be extremely informative, and desperately sad.

I read this because I will be attending a dinner with the author and viewing a movie about the Kindertransport. Having never really been a student of WWII, the Kindertransport was completely new to me. The story flows well and the characters are well developed. Pick concentrates on the relationships, not on the physical hardships/atrocities of the camps as some authors do. This keeps the mood a little more upbeat.

"You wanted to protect him? Look what your protection has done. Now he can't get out of the country at all."

"Who was it? The secretary?"

"Yes, the Secretary. And you can guess what he said"

"There must be something we can do"

"No," Pavel Said. "He made it very clear. The decision was Winston's, in fact. Because, you see, there are so many Jewish children desperate to get out that is simply doesn't make sense to send those with a Christian baptismal certificate."

Far To Go: Alison Pick.

A family living in Sudetenland in a peaceful life.
A mother, Annalise, Father, Pavel, and Son, Pepik. Along with his nanny Marta.

Hitler however is on the move, and is soon able to take Sudetenland, and the family is forced to move to Prague. Although this is soon over run as well.

The family is forced to make some heartbreaking decisions to keep their family safe, but also to keep Pepik, their only son, in safe keeping, and out of the hands of Hitler.

The story, which is most entirely in Marta's point of view, takes a sudden shift to Pepik.

He is able to, after some 'convincing' from his father, able to leave on one of the last 'Kindertransport' trains out of Prague.

Pepik takes the story at this point, and goes into a 6 year olds view of the Kindertransport, and his thoughts, feelings, fears and hopes, as he makes his way to, and stays with his first foster family in Scotland. Also the heart wrenching period of time alongside his foster brother, and the transition from his first foster family, to an orphanage.

My View:
This book is absolutely terrible, but good.
I have always been interested in the time of Hitler, and the Holocaust, and stories like these, make my skin crawl. Even more so, since I am at least half German.

The book is, although fictional, written based off of Alison's own research, into her own family history, and events that she pieced together, although the accuracy is, of course, in question.

I also love, that at the end, it has a mini-memoir about Alison and her genealogy quest, along with her decision to convert to her ancestor religion of Judaism, a religion that had been weeded out of her immediate family during the Holocaust with the safer religion of Christianity.

It's a GOOD book!
I will most likely keep this book in my mind as one worthy to read again.

Picked it up at my local library.

- CJ

I liked the idea of the story but found the execution awkward and not really interesting. I wanted to like it much more!

I wanted to give this more stars as it's worthy, and well put together, but in the long run it doesn't amount to much. Of course, it's difficult to be fresh about the war, which is no reason not to keep trying, but in any case, Far to Go isn't fresh. It's a small story, banal in the detail, and not particularly insightful, with thinly drawn characters and no strong sense of time or place.

There are a couple of slightly annoying layers - the author's family has been fictionalised, and then THAT family's story has been novelised, with the join made obvious through the device of an involved but apparently reliable narrator. I can see why this is - the author clearly wants to make a point about the layers through which memories, and unremembered pasts, are recovered and the resulting resonances - but in general I find this sort of a cheat's device... Just tell the story, and we'll get it.

Anyway it's readable, if not fully convincing, but not aiming very high.

Given the subject matter, this book is not a happy book. With a very young son, it really touch my heart much more than it would have a few months ago. I kept thinking I should just stop reading it, but I just couldn't. I even skipped precious hours of my currently frequently interrupted sleep to finish it!