Hi everyone! Today I’m excited to participate in the blog tour of WE ARE NOT FREE by Traci Chee, organised by Colored Pages Bookish Tours! My tour post was supposed to be published yesterday, so I apologise for the delay. This OwnVoices young adult fiction is about the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II. We Are Not Free releases tomorrow from HMH Teen!
Read on to learn more about Traci Chee’s upcoming book We Are Not Free and lots more!
SHE WAS FAST ASLEEP on the back seat on the bus. Curled up, thumb in mouth. Four, maybe five years old.
Frances Liardet,We Must be Brave
This is the story of Ellen Parr and her love for her foster daughter, Pamela. The book starts off with Ellen finding a sleeping but abandoned child in a bus. Ellen searches for the child’s mother but no one on the bus has seen her. Distraught, Ellen takes the child -Pamela- into her care and meanwhile, she searches for Pamela’s mother. However, Ellen soon discovers that Pamela’s mother is dead and apparently, Pamela has no other relative who can take care of her. This marks the beginning of a beautiful mother-daughter relationship which is the central theme of the story.
Years go by, the war ends and so does the time Ellen can spend with Pamela. Ellen has to let Pamela go and they may never see each other again or will they ?
My eyes stung with frustrated tears. I watched the bus emerge from the dip and rush on up the hill, through the bare trees and away to Waltham.
-Frances Liardet, We Must Be Brave
This heartbreaking story is set during the 1940s and spans years through the ’70s till 2010. We learn of Ellen’s past and present and then, at last, we get a glimpse into Pamela’s present. I had no problem with the timeline as it was seamlessly written. I loved the ending too, it left me somewhat heartbroken but content ( am I making any sense?).
What I didn’t like was some parts of the dialogue and some secondary characters. I felt that the book could have been a bit shorter if some of the parts were cut out. Besides that, I loved this historical fiction where we get a glimpse of one of many consequences of war and life.
Overall, I would recommend this tear-jerker of historical fiction where you can glimpse the different consequences of war and the unconventional love between mother and daughter.
I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Verdict: 3.75 out of 5 stars.
Author: Connect with Author Frances Liardet here .
Publisher: 4th Estate Books
Publication Date: 7 Feb 2019
Paperback: 896 Pages
Have you read WE MUST BE BRAVE, or, the author’s previous novel The Game? If your answer is ‘NO’ to both the questions, then, will you add it to your TBR? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Synopsis:In 1948 Najin and Calvin Cho, with their young daughter Miran, travel from South Korea to the United States in search of new opportunities. Wary of the challenges ahead, Najin and Calvin make the difficult decision to leave their other daughter, Inja, behind with their extended family; soon, they hope, they will return to her.
But then war breaks out in Korea, and there is no end in sight to the separation. Miran grows up in prosperous American suburbia, under the shadow of the daughter left behind, as Inja grapples in her war-torn land with ties to a family she doesn’t remember. Najin and Calvin desperately seek a reunion with Inja, but are the bonds of love strong enough to reconnect their family over distance, time and war? And as deep family secrets are revealed, will everything they long for be upended?
Told through the alternating perspectives of the distanced sisters, and inspired by a true story, The Kinship of Secrets explores the cruelty of war, the power of hope, and what it means to be a sister.
Synopsis:Germany, 1945. Klara Janowska and her daughter Alicja have walked for weeks to get to Graufeld Displaced Persons camp. In the cramped, dirty, dangerous conditions they, along with 3,200 others, are the lucky ones. They have survived and will do anything to find a way back home. But when Klara recognises a man in the camp from her past, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins. He knows exactly what she did during the war to save her daughter. She knows his real identity. What will be the price of silence? And will either make it out of the camp alive?
Book Rambler 