I was really looking forward to this having loved 'The way back to Florence' but it was a bit of a chore to finish. I enjoyed the Max and Ada story (although I don't think the sexual content was needed) but think that it could have been developed more, it seemed a bit rushed. I was also keen to learn what would be discovered in Europe and for me this provided a satisfactory conclusion. However I don't think the grandson's story was needed and I didn't see the point of the homeless chap. I think the story of Max and his Italian family, along with Ada's story would have made a better book.

I really do appreciate Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy of this book. I really did not enjoy this book. It just jumped around too much and it was hard to follow who was speaking in this book. The grandfather or the grandson? I think their stories parelled in some respects in regards to the women in their lives. This book received many good reviews, so I think it just wasn’t for me. It started out well with Ava and Max’s friendship but went flat after that and the ending was a bit strange for me as well.

This book is short but a beautiful written prose. It is the story of a grandfather telling a story to his grandson, seeking help. He tells of a childhood friend who he spent time with everyday in the backyard treehouse in Paris. She was a Jew, and taken away unexpectedly during WW2. Now years later he wants his grandson to take him back to Paris to help him find answers, closure, and healing. His grandson has hurdles of his own and things don’t go as planned, as so often happens in life.
Even though the story is told during the war, it is not a book about the Holocaust or the war. I did remove a star because I thought it was unnecessarily too sexual for me. Especially involving young children.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher through Net Gallery for my honest review.

4.5 tragically sad stars

Take a walk back in time. Go back to a room, a house, a neighborhood, and in this case a tree house and explore the feelings that are evoked. Think of your friends, your family and most of all think of moments, minutes where you did something, even if it was so very slight that you were ashamed of. Does the memory haunt you? Can you find forgiveness in your cruelty, your denial, the willful hurt that you gave to another?

Max and Ada are the best of friends, loving each other, sharing with one another, and composing a book of spells in their tree house in Paris. Life seems wonderful with all its childlike wonder. Being ten years old and finding your soul mate is a perfect way to tackle life. But then the dark cloud of the Nazis arrive and life changes and takes a downward spiral into darkness. You see, Ada is Jewish and of course in Paris, under the Nazis, being Jewish is a death sentence.

Max, poor Max, is a child born through rape. His mother left him and he is brought up in foster care where not much love is given to him. However, there is Ada and he loves her and she him, that is until the Nazis come.

The story moves us forward to fifty years later when Max contacts his grandson, another lost soul, and wants to share with him what transpired in Paris those many years ago as well as a secret that has been tearing him apart for so many years. Max wants to return to Paris. He is searching for two women in his life, his beloved Ada and the mother who left him. Max's grandson, also is looking for a woman he lost. The two men head to Paris with the hopes of finding closure, forgiveness, and a date with the hereafter.

Told beautifully, this story if filled with sadness blended with a mixture of humor. It evokes a feeling of lives lost and of hearts broken and a search for forgiveness which is something we all search for when we have hurt another or they have hurt us.

Thank you to Glenn Haybittle, the publisher, and NetGalley for provided and ARC of this very special novel.

I am reading the glowing reviews of this book and can’t help wondering if I read the same book. I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I just found the book very disjointed, often couldn’t even easily decide if the grandfather or grandson was speaking. Both of these male characters had issues, the grandfather was mourning his relationship 50 years ago with Ada , a Jewish girl who was killed by the Nazis. His quest to find the book of spells they wrote together 50 years before was too far fetched for me. The grandson also had issues, a breakup with his girlfriend, his fear of closed spaces, especially trains, planes, boats, etc. I just couldn’t develop an empathy for either one of the characters and found the book rambling and boring.
Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced copy.

Mark is something of a disaster, his love life is a failure, he lives in a half way house, and has no real job to speak of. He hasn't heard from his Grandfather Max in years, when suddenly he is contacted by him out of the blue.

Curiosity gets the better of Mark and he decides to pay a visit to Max.

And so begins the story of Max's childhood, of the girl next door, the Mother he never really knew, and the horrors of the Nazi party and the second World War.

Ada, Max's next door neighbour was Max's first true love. Together they used to spend hours in their shared tree house concocting their book of spells. But war is beckoning, the Nazi's are getting closer to France and Ada is Jewish.

Max isn't aware of the significance of this at the time, it isn't until the family are forced to leave and the friends are torn apart, that he is made truly aware of the consequences of being a Jew in a Nazi occupied country...

The Tree House is a beautiful tale of childhood friendship set against the backdrop of Nazi occupied France.

It was a good book. It started off slow, but later got interesting. I loved reading about Max and Ada's childhood. Full review up on my blog

A sad but very engaging tale told in two timescales Max and Ada were captivating and made the book for me. It was not the first time I had read a book where a problem from the past is trying to be resolved in the present but it was well written nevertheless.

Thanks to Katie, Cheri, Karen, and Angela for loving this book and recommending it. It’s a short book full of meaning. Max is unforgettable. His story of Ada, his guilt over his last moment with her, and his searching were all real and authentic. With some spells and some fun dances, this was “another” World War II fictional tale, but a standout in its truth and heart.

Thanks to Glenn Haybittle, Cheyne Walk, and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. <b>The Tree House will be published on January 11, 2018</b> (which happens to be a very special date to my family). 💕

I’ve read quite a few WWII books this year, but The Tree House was very different from the rest. Told from the perspectives of a grandfather and his grandson, this is a bittersweet tale of guilt and looking for redemption. Max summons his grandson to reflect on his perceived betrayal of the love of his life, Ada, in Paris during WWII, when they were both just children. He is still tortured by his last cruel and thoughtless words to his best friend before she got captured by Nazi soldiers and shipped off to a death camp, never to be seen again. Haunted by the ghost of his friend and images of a mother who abandoned him as a child, Max’s memories take on an almost surreal, dreamlike character, like the books of spells Ada and Max created in their short time together.

His grandson Mark is battling demons all of his own, reflecting on the events that lead to the breakdown of his relationship to dancer Katie, who he still can’t get out of his mind. As the two men reconnect after years apart and confide in each other, both offer one another a strange kind of solace from their regrets. And whilst it is too late for Max to undo the past, there may still be time for Mark to make amends.

The Tree House is a tale of two men connected by blood and past regrets. Whilst the holocaust plays only a small part in the story, and the horrors of war are only ever hinted at through the eyes of an innocent child, the story explores how it has shaped Max and his life from the time Ada was taken. I enjoyed how the author connects the past and present through the relationship between the two men, one old and one young, but both haunted by their own demons. Only in each other can they find solace and a strange kind of healing. The grandfather-grandson relationship is beautifully portrayed and made this a reflective and somewhat wistful read for me.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2208114401

A common story line these days - a story from the past linked to the present. In this case it's a grandfather's story as he is seeking help from his grandson wanting to right something from his past, to discover something from his past. I have to admit that I get tired of this type of story line at times but, I definitely didn't with this novel. Perhaps it was because I fell in love with the children, Max and Ada, best friends living in Paris as the Nazis begin occupation. Their secrets, their funny dances , their book of spells made for poignant moments. Max, now in his 70's summons his grandson Mark to help him return to Paris in search of what he can find out about his childhood friend Ada and his mother, who gave him up at birth in favor of her career as a dancer.


[book:The Way Back to Florence|35280104] was harder to read in its depiction of the horrors of the war and while this one does not focus on the awful details of the Holocaust, it is nonetheless a story of the impact of the Holocaust and the psychological impact on a young boy living in Paris during the Nazi occupation, a young boy now an old man living with guilt and regret over his actions towards Ada, who was Jewish. Max's grandson, Mark has some psychological issues of his own as well as a lost relationship. They forge a bond and make the journey to Paris, as well as a journey to find themselves. I found this to be a sad story , yet it was hopeful with some revelations at the end that I wasn't expecting. Another well written book from Glenn Haybittle makes me look forward to his next one to be published in 2018, [book:Evie and Jack|35580838].

I received an advanced copy of this book from Cheyne Walk through NetGalley.

‘Past tense, present tense, future tense- what does it matter? When you reach my age they all become muddled anyway. Differentiating tenses- it’s all just another form of housekeeping.’

Ten-year-olds Max and Ada have created an universe for themselves within a tree house in Paris when the Nazi’s arrive to occupy the country and cause a rupture in their private world. Both are doomed by the happenstance of their birth, Max the product of rape and Ada, Jewish. Nothing touches them in their treehouse, working spells, and giving birth to a pure love affair that will remain with Max for the entirity of his life. No one escapes the ugly realities of the world, as Max and Ada learn, but not even the nightmares a child conjures could ever compare with the horrors of man, the tragedy of a damned future.

Grandson Mark is called to be the keeper of his grandfather’s dark shame, and to join him on a journey to discover the end of his and Ada’s story, which Mark doesn’t fully believe. Then there is Max’s mother, who discarded him like an old coat- a woman he never really knew. Just what is hidden in her past? His grandfather has always been different, has never really reached out to him before, a strange man who is keeping a mannequin in his garden, living in a shed with scraps like memories tacked the walls, he tells him “If I lose the past I’ll be homeless”. He is terrified of losing memories of Ada, all that he tells her in his mind has been an anchor to this world, as if living for them both. But to forget, no sin would be greater! Mark himself is floating off, unable to face day to day living, breaking out in a cold sweat at the thought of leaving the house, it’s nearly impossible to focus on his grandfather let alone consider helping him on his mission. In the agitated state Mark is in, it would be madness! How can he cross the English Channel, possibly the only and last thing Max will ever ask of him, when he can barely leave the home he lives in?

Both are damned by vanishings in their life. Mark’s in crisis, five years after one poor decision, “It was as if everything I knew about myself was coming to an end.” It cost him more than life on stage, in the spotlight- lead singer in his band. It cost him his beautiful girlfriend, a dancer named Katie. He is living in the ruins of his choice, with a fractured mind but maybe by helping his grandfather resurrect the past, he will find footing in his own future.

I could hear Ada’s heart breaking, there is terrible cruelty in our cowardice. To be damned by choices, seemingly cursed by the history in which we as children have no control over, is devastating. Not knowing is torture, you can imagine all manner of terrible things, but knowing is it’s own fresh hell. Max’s confusion and longing for his mother is as putrid a wound as his betrayal of Ada. Mark has his own shame, caged in himself, refusing to reach out and explain… They are painfully alike, so who a better caretaker of his grandfather’s past than Mark?

Sad to the end!

Publication Date: January 18, 2018

Cheyne Walk

”And now listen carefully. You in others – this is your soul. This is what you are. This is what your consciousness has breathed and lived on and enjoyed throughout your life – your soul, your immortality, your life in others. And what now? You have always been in others and you will remain in others. And what does it matter to you if later on that is called your memory? This will be you – the you that enters the future and becomes a part of it.”
--Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

As a young boy, Max lived next door to Ada. They were the best of friends, spending long hours together in the tree house her father had made, they created a world of their own, where they lived together, creating their own spells, a book of spells kept safely away from the eyes of others, spells to keep the problems of the world at bay. From the ages of eight until they were eleven they were inseparable.

But Max is no longer a young boy, and when his grandson comes to visit him, Max finds himself sharing his story, or their story. The story of Max and Ada, living in Paris as the years of the Holocaust are unfolding. Max, whose mother abandoned him as an infant, knows little about his heritage, Ada is Jewish, and as the environment grows more hostile to Jews in France, eventually Ada and her family, after enduring degradation after degradation, are forced to leave.

His grandson Mark has his own story to tell, as well, failing to show support to the women in their life is a bond they share with some shame, wishing they could but turn back the hands of time, and remove the memories of a gesture, a word, an act that was carried out without considering the pain that would follow.

Max convinces his grandson to join him on a trip to return to Paris, hoping to find the Book of Spells that he and Ada made, and also to see if he could find more information on his birth mother in Italy. And so they start out on a journey that holds much promise, and more time for Max to share his story.

It is Max, his story, his charming if somewhat lost-in-the-past character, his regrets, his passions, Max’s story really is the heart of this story, his never letting go of his shame, or of his love for Ada, his memories of Ada or their time together. They had a spell to bring back a certain time, in order to cherish it again. His hope to find something tangible to hold onto, maybe then he can find his way back.

This was my first book by Glenn Haybittle, and I loved it. Max is one of those characters that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page. This story manages to infuse some lighter, happier moments, even humour, during a time when life seemed so very fragile, which made it feel, somehow, all the more real to me.


Pub Date: 11 Jan 2018

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Cheyne Walk

A fascinating subject interwoven with human remorse and mental health challenges. A desire for forgiveness balanced with a wild and wise spirit in both characters. The betrayal of values both social and familial seem to best from the pages.
I felt that there is another story within the story that could be explored. The third dimension of the girl who was removed from spells and dreams and her right to a future.

The Tree House by Glenn Haybittle is a holocaust story with a difference.   Beautifully written and thought provoking, the focus of this story is not so much the holocaust and the war as the way these events altered the life of a boy,  now an elderly man.    It is about memories and loss, guilt and anxiety.   An assumed understanding of the atrocities of war is implied but the references are woven into the narrative in a gentle but no less powerful manner.   For a relatively short book it manages to make a big impact.

Max was an 11 year old boy living in Paris at the outset of WWII.      Now in his twilight years he has lived his life both tormented and tantalised by memories of his childhood friend Ada.    They had spent many hours setting up home in their tree house in Ada's backyard.     Together they played, shared secrets, laughed and created a treasured book of magic spells.   Neither Max nor Ada realised just how serious the threat of war was to them, nor the possible implications of the yellow star worn on Ada's clothing.    One night Ada and her parents were arrested by the French police, marched from their home never to be seen again.  To say Max was traumatised by this loss is an understatement.   He has spent his life both punishing himself for his own perceived guilt and keeping her memory alive.    To this day he has not shared his story nor his memories of Ada with another living soul however he now feels compelled to tell his grandson so that Ada's memory will live on.      The grandson has his own issues and though different circumstances, he too is plagued by memories of his own actions and subsequent losses.   Initially unsure about what to make of Max's stories he becomes caught up in them.    He finds there's a synchronicity between he and his grandfather and together they embark upon a restorative and life changing journey.

The writing,  the story, the characters were all so very well done.    It was easy to read but was neither light nor heavy and included  some beautiful quotes which I haven't shared here but which will remain with me.  Thanks to the author, Cheyne Walk the publisher,  and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.

The Tree house started off wonderful. There was enough tragedy as there was humor to keep me wanting more.

This book opens up with 70 year old Max sharing his adventures of him and best friend, Ada to his grandson. The wonderful story of the strong bond of friendship left my heart heavy. Also, all the pain and tragedy he lived with all because Ada was Jewish. While sharing his childhood with his grandson it becomes clear he is going through some personal struggles as well. I did enjoy the bit of mystery the author left you with, is Ada real or not, or just something this old man Max made up? I did find a few parts that lost my interest, but If you like historical fiction you will enjoy this.

Thanks again!

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36539025-the-tree-house" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Tree House" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509879708m/36539025.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36539025-the-tree-house">The Tree House</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14050193.Glenn_Haybittle">Glenn Haybittle</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2188161135">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Max and Ada were childhood friends who lived in Paris and made a backyard treehouse their “home”. They spent all their available time there together making a book of magical spells. Max was abandoned by his birth mother and adopted, Ada was a Jewish girl. They became very close. Nazi occupation comes to Paris, and the worst happens.<br />Fast forward to present day, Max is 70 and tells his adult grandson the story of Ada and his mother’s abandonment and asks him to accompany him on a trip to find to find the book of spells and his mother.<br />This is a short novel but a meaningful one.<br /><br />Thank you to NetGalley and Cheyenne Walk for the opportunity to read this advanced copy!
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12851291-karen">View all my reviews</a>

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.”
― Helen Keller

Lately I have been reading a lot of WWII historical fiction and every single book that I have read about that time period has been amazing. This one was no different. The story moves along quickly and touches on everything I enjoy reading about WWII. I am always intrigued by the stories, be it in fiction or otherwise.
This book follows the story of Max who shares his story and one of his best friend, Ada. He shares his story his grandson who is dealing with issues of his own. Max’s story of friendship, betrayal and redemption was very touching and the book left me wanting more.

I did find a few parts that were difficult to read but the rest of the book made up for it. If you like historical fiction I believe you will enjoy this one.