The Note

 

The Note - Carly Schabowski - Historical fiction post and during WW2   

This is a very different read and not quite what I was expecting- read on. In 1950’s America a young girl, Alice, is set up by a friend to throw stones at someone's window- a man they suspect of killing a friend of theirs.  His stone hits and breaks it whilst she hasn’t thrown hers. She feels bad about it and writes a note confessing and offering to pay for the window. So begins an unlikely friendship. Jozef has been through a lot in his life and is still very wary of others. He is jewish and fled Germany to France in the war. Slowly the friendship develops and Alice encourages him to tell his stories of what happened in that dreadful era to him, his wife and friends. An unlikely friendship and one where an outcast is befriended by a young person free of the scepticisms of adulthood. I found this mesmerising and treasuring each page, it is so beautifully written. A compelling story and an innocent listener. A stunning story, one of emotion and how true friendship can overcome most anything. 

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The Note: An utterly heartbreaking and completely gripping World War Two novel by Carly Schabowski

 A heartbreaking World War Two tale, The Note is about lost loves and long-buried secrets, desperate decisions––and the consequences that cannot be escaped…

Auschwitz, 1942: On a warm summer’s day in Paris, Jozef and his beloved wife Adi are captured by the Nazis after going on the run. Forced onto a train with countless others, they spend days travelling to Auschwitz. They are torn from each other, stripped of belongings, their arms inked with prison numbers. In the death camp, their days are numbered––will they ever see each other again?

1953, South Carolina: On the night of her thirteenth birthday, the air as sticky as honey, Alice is woken up by the ear-splitting sound of sirens. The body of a teenage girl, Nancy, has been found in the lake.

Suspicion falls on Jozef, a German refugee who now lives in the small town. When one of Alice’s friends breaks a window in his house, Alice is wracked with guilt. She writes a note apologizing––a note that changes everything.

As Alice and Jozef form a friendship, Jozef opens ups about his painful past: he is an Auschwitz survivor. Hearing about the desperate choices people were forced to make, and the hunt for freedom amongst so much heartbreak, Alice starts to see her own life––and the death of her friend––in a new light.

As their bond deepens, Alice uncovers Jozef’s secret––one that has followed him from Auschwitz, and could now shatter Alice’s world. When a long-awaited storm breaks the suffocating heatwave, the truth finally comes out, and Alice’s life will never be the same again…

An incredibly gripping and tearjerking page-turner perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, When We Were Yours and We Were the Lucky Ones.

 

Buy links:

https://geni.us/B09Q3LXFRMsocial

Author bio

 

Carly Schabowski worked as a journalist in both North Cyprus and Australia before returning to Oxford, where she studied for an MA and then a PhD in creative writing at Oxford Brookes University. Carly now teaches at Oxford Brookes University as an associate lecturer in Creative Writing for first and second-year English literature students.

 

Author social media

 

Twitter: twitter.com/@carlyschab11