** spoiler alert ** Oh how I had cried. I instantly fell in love with Noa and Theo. Astrid was my most favorite character of all though as she was careful yet wise and was willing to take risks if it meant protecting those she loved. It took time for her to warm to Noa but you could tell from the first few meetings that the ice began to thaw around that heart that she pretended to be so cold with. In fact she was only that way because she lost everything she knew, her family, her husband casting her out, and having to be in hiding about what she really is to keep herself alive. The Orphan's Tale did an amazing job on telling the story of World War 2 and what it was like for those who were different or ill and how life was difficult for anyone. Noa, cast out by her family for having an bastard child with a german soldier. Having to make it on her own and coming across Theo who was left in a train car, no more than just a baby that reminded her of the one that was taken from her by the germans. Left in a train car to die for simply being jewish and deciding to steal him from his fate and try to keep him alive. Her bravery on doing so saved his life and I cried when she dies at the end of the book, not getting to see him grow up, never knowing why her love Luke never came to get her, dying to protect the ones she loves and making sure that her best friend Astrid made it to the United States where her brother is alive. Her brother being Astrid's brother, the one she presumed that had died with the rest of her family.
Astrid who was kicked out of her house by her first husband, coming to believe her family was murdered to find out a sole brother survived. To come to love a clown of the circus she lived with, Peter, her second husband who she fallen deeply in love with. About to have his baby, to have a family, to have happiness just for it to be snatched away from her on her wedding night, having a policeman beat her in the stomach and having her come to believe that she lost both child and husband the same night. Her child, Patricia, becoming a miracle on not being taken from her that night months later, the only thing she had left of Peter. Raising both her child and Theo brought tears to my eyes.
This was beautifully written and I highly recommend it.
Noa, cast out by her family for having an bastard child with a german soldier. Having to make it on her own and coming across Theo who was left in a train car, no more than just a baby that reminded her of the one that was taken from her by the germans. Left in a train car to die for simply being jewish and deciding to steal him from his fate and try to keep him alive. Her bravery on doing so saved his life and I cried when she dies at the end of the book, not getting to see him grow up, never knowing why her love Luke never came to get her, dying to protect the ones she loves and making sure that her best friend Astrid made it to the United States where her brother is alive. Her brother being Astrid's brother, the one she presumed that had died with the rest of her family.
Astrid who was kicked out of her house by her first husband, coming to believe her family was murdered to find out a sole brother survived. To come to love a clown of the circus she lived with, Peter, her second husband who she fallen deeply in love with. About to have his baby, to have a family, to have happiness just for it to be snatched away from her on her wedding night, having a policeman beat her in the stomach and having her come to believe that she lost both child and husband the same night. Her child, Patricia, becoming a miracle on not being taken from her that night months later, the only thing she had left of Peter. Raising both her child and Theo brought tears to my eyes.
This was beautifully written and I highly recommend it.