The Puppet Boy of Warsaw by Eva Weaver
Synopsis:
The Puppet Boy of Warsaw is the story of Mika, a Jewish boy who inherits a coat from his grandfather and discovers a puppet in one of its many secret pockets. He becomes a puppeteer in the Warsaw ghetto, but when his talent is discovered, Mika is forced to entertain the occupying German troops instead of his countrymen.
It is also the story of Max, a German soldier stationed in Warsaw, whose experiences in Poland and later in Siberia's Gulag show a different side to the Second World War. As one of Mika's puppets is passed to the soldier, a war-torn legacy is handed from one generation to another. - Goodreads
This isn't a very well-known book. It only has 953 ratings on Goodreads and I wouldn't even know it existed if it hadn't stared me down in the library one day. Normally I tend to stick to more popular books because a.) they are often of excellent quality--*thinks of all the terrible overhyped books*-- and b.) I love having a fan base to connect with. And to be honest, c.) I am very much behind on everything concerning popular books. Still, I needed a break from fantasy and sci-fi and I was going to Berlin, so it seemed nice to take a historical novel with me.
This book took me an atrociously long time to read.
I get sick easily in busses, so it seemed like a poor plan to read my book while we were driving. (In retrospect, I had medicines for the sickness, so I could've avoided being incredulously bored for 10 hours by putting that book in my carry-on baggage.) I assumed that we would have plenty of lost time in between activities for me to quietly read my book while people shot me unfriendly looks.
I don't know if any of you had friends in high school, but let me tell you, they're a blessing. Most of the time. Unless they spend hours consulting you about their screwed up problems or tell you that reading in public is antisocial. There was plenty of wasted time, and I'm sure I would've felt the burning agony of my over-used legs and feet a lot less if I'd had this book with me. Sadly, I'm not enough of a Hermione Granger to completely abandon social standards and defy the will of my friends.
I know, Taylor, I am pathetic. Long-story-that's-already-long short, I only read 20 pages in Berlin. Of course, after that whole ordeal of no sleep and drinking roommates, I needed only one thing: sleep. Well, sleep and to work on those hundred-and-one assignments I talked about. So again I read very little. I've invested about two weeks of my life in a book of just 336 pages.
This book made me inhumanely sad.
If a book makes you cry, that's the book telling you that something really sad has happened/is happening. If a book makes you feel a tightening hole boring into your chest, that book is no longer a book. That book is an inescapable well of extreme sadness that intends to fill itself up with your very heart.
It's not that sad events happen. This book is one big sad event of tragedy, which so accurately describes the way WWII must have felt for these people.
And the saddest part was not even the camps themselves. It was Ellie and the incompleteness of everyone's life and the aftermath of the war that Eva Weaver so beautifully recreates. I loved how we saw two such different perspectives of persecution, but also how the things said and done influenced the lives of the characters. War never ends with 'and then everything was okay.' War ends in 'and then everyone was still bearing the weight of their past, almost too heavy to carry on their thinned backs.' I always get so frustrated with people if they act like the war itself is the only time that people ache and are miserable. This book captures what deep scars such violence and loss leaves without losing the hope for healing and redemption.
The writing is my favorite kind of storytelling.
I don't know why exactly, but I really love novels in which someone tells their story. It gives me this feeling of traveling and learning, and it makes the book seem very long and also really personal. And then at the end of the book, it gives me this blissful feeling of coming home after a long journey.
I don't understand why no one reads this book.
It has great ratings: 4.11/5 on Goodreads, 4,4/5 stars on Amazon.
Holocaust historical fiction is a popular genre.
The Warsaw Getto is well-known, but not an overwritten subject.
What's the deal? If I had to compare it to the Book Thief, it would be a tough call. All I know is that a lot more things happen in this book.
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