Thank you to @atriabooks and @netgalley for a copy of this book to read an review. This book is set to be published on February 4! Let me just say I started this last night at like 10:00 and just finished tonight at 8:00. I couldn’t put this book down. All day I was thinking about when I could read it again. Vera and Edith are two best friends who survived the Holocaust after Vera’s mother pushed them from a train on its way to Auschwitz. This story follows their lives after the war with flash backs to war time. While it is a tale of friendship and survival, it also is a romance. I highly recommend it

This is one of those books that you take a break, sit back and just flow with the ride. When you start a new book, you never know if it is going to fast paced, unable to put it down or a slow ebb and tide that you savor. This is an ebb and tide savor read. I certainly enjoyed becoming friends and following Edith and Vera in their coming of age adventures.
The war is not the focus of this tale, the focus is the love and comradery between these two life long friends. We follow them from a train in the holocaust to a ship crossing the ocean to landing in Caraccas. We learn of their loves, trials, tribulations, hopes, dreams, family and the true meaning of “pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move forward”. They did this and the most important lesson I learned was to have a worthy life, you need a little empathy.
This is a good read; I mark this one with my approval and recommendation. Sit back and enjoy.
I was given an advance copy from Atria Books through Net Galley for my honest review, this one gets 5 stars.

I'm struggling a bit with what to say about this book, because it wasn't a book I loved, and it wasn't a book I hated, it was really in the "okay" middle. Ultimately it is a story about survival and resiliency, which I like. There are parts that seem to fantastical for fiction, and then we learn that the novel is based on the author's mother's story.

What I liked was moments like the one when Vera is talking to the rabbi about life and the will to live after the Holocaust that were important and vital. But then there was the moment I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when the Army Captain says that he fell in love with her at first sight, and I was afraid this would end in rape, but instead ended in love (which wasn't terribly convincing on Vera's part, except she kept saying how much she loved him).

Ultimately, I sort of wanted to find out what would happen to Vera, but I didn't understand why she loved Anton, and the ending of the story seemed inevitable at a certain point in the story so I lost the desire to finish the book. I feel like my review sounds almost less than 3 stars, and it isn't. But I struggled to really feel more than an observer of Vera's life. There is a great line about empathy in the book and how necessary it is for humans, which is a good theme of the book, but Vera didn't seem a deep enough character that I got to the point of having real empathy with her, walking in her shoes and feeling her feelings. What the author made me feel was just sympathy. It was a great sympathetic story, but not one that I could actually live in.

I really adored this novel about two young Hungarian Jewish women who survived WWII by jumping off a train on the way to Auschwitz. What a beautiful story of the power of love that comes from friendship, survival and how to rebuild your life after you have lost everything. The writing was beautiful and I could picture every location described from Italy to Venezuela, so well. I just loved Vera and Edith's relationship and bond and how it shows that sometimes blood does not define family. Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This gives you a little bit of a different look at WWII, with the rebuilding of life for 2 young women, Hungarian Jews who managed to escape and make it through the Holocaust and end up in Italy post war. The author says it is based on her mom's life, and I'd love to see where the history/fiction line is as it felt more like a novel then historical fiction at times as there were so many coincidences.

The characters were a little flat, but I still enjoyed reading about their adventures from Italy, the US, Venezuela and Australia.

What caught my attention when I read about this book was that it was based on the author's mother's experiences during and after the Holocaust. While I did enjoy parts of the book I found it disappointing. It focused
primarily on the post war romances of Vera and her friend Edith. It was sorely lacking in substance and Edith especially came across as frivolous and needy. I was left with a feeling of annoyance.
I received an ARC through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
3.5

I love WWII novels and my interest was piqued in this one because it is set during the immediate aftermath of the war. Two Hungarian Jewish young women – Vera and Edith -- made it through the Holocaust and are trying to start over again in Italy. They were born 3 days apart and grew up together in Budapest. Vera, fluent in several languages, gets a secretarial job with a US military officer in charge of restoring order to Naples. Edith, a carefree risk-taker, is interested in fashion design and men.

The book chronicles their experience from Italy to New York to Venezuela to Australia. I was particularly interested in learning more about the Jewish diaspora in South America. While I got a taste of it, this book is mostly a romance with too many implausible coincidences, stretching credulity to the limit. But then, part of the romance genre is a happy ending.

I found the writing to be repetitious and flat. The characters were two-dimensional and typecast. If a reader is interested in a historical novel featuring the Hungarian experience during WWII, I suggest Julia Orringer’s “The Invisible Bridge.” “The Light After the War,” although inspired by the experience of the author’s mother, is more of a light romance.

I’m dying to know how closely Abriel’s book traces actual events from her mother’s incredible experiences before, during, and after WWII.

Abriel offers a vivid account of the fear and dread—intermixed with sparks of hope—that sustained Vera and Edith in Hungary and Germany during the war; their wonderfully brave, practical, creative routes to survival as single young women in Naples along with jarring adjustments to post-war floods of food, fashion, and joy; a more settled life in Venezuela, the evolutions of their careers, and their attempts to find a second chapter of love, as well as incredible realizations about loved ones who survived the death camps. Then another enormous shift that shakes things up enormously yet again for both young women before the book’s end. I was completely engrossed!

Vera and Edith are such a complementary partnership, and I loved spending time with these strong young women.

I received an advance copy of this book through Atria Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This might be one of the first books I've read that starts purely after WWII and it was an interesting premise. I wish that the book had more storyline about Edith and not just focus on Vera. The synopsis to me felt like it was supposed to be about both girls but it was pretty much about Vera.

Giant thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book! I absolutely loved getting to know Edith and Vera. Their voices throughout the book were very unique and gave me a good sense of who they were. I felt that Vera’s love story was too predictable for about 2/3 of the book, but won’t say more so I don’t spoil it. Excited to hear what others think of the book! 3.5 stars.

The Light After the War is inspired by the author’s mother (Vera ) and her best friend (Edith). They manage to jump off a train heading to Auschwitz from Budapest. It is their story of survival , heartbreak and love. Two strong women who overcome many hardships. This book was a real page turner for me.

Thank you to Net Galley and Atria Publishing for a digital ARC of this book.

Based on a true story of the author's mother's survival during the Holocaust and her life after, this novel is a different approach to historical fiction. It is unclear which parts of the story are true and which are embellished for the reader, however, the story kept me engaged until the end. The story is about friendship, love, loss, survival and determination.

This book definitely left me wanting more. I was expecting a lot more historical fiction and a lot less fluffy romance. For me, the characters lacked depth and complexity. It seemed like life just happened to them because they were pretty girls. Things just fell on their laps and worked out one way or the other for unknown reasons. Some expressions seemed out of place "a room bigger than a football field". Was this a common expression for 1940s European teen girls? Some situations could have been fleshed out a little more: "she would gaze at the blue swath of ocean or stand under the waterfall at the foot of angel falls". How / when did she get to Angel Falls? "Looked into the oven to check that the empanadas..." Uhm... Venezuelan empanadas are fried, not baked, and they're most definitely not "fluffy".

I don't know, little details like that distract me from the actual story, even though there wasn't much of one here in my opinion.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read and review The Light After The War by Anita Abriel. This book will be published on February 4, 2020.


This novel is based upon the true story of the author's mother (Vera) and her best friend (Edith) who both manage to jump off the train carrying them and their Jewish mothers from Budapest to Auschwitz during World War II. While distraught about leaving their mothers on the train, the teenagers are able to survive by living in a barn in Austria in exchange for doing farm work for the owners. Believing that their families and loved ones were all killed in the war, they decide not to return to Budapest. Instead, these two beautiful 19-year-old women next travel to Naples where they set out to rebuild their lives. Vera finds meaningful work and falls in love, but that has a disappointing end. Edith befriends an aspiring photographer, whose photo of the two women is published in Life Magazine. A wealthy American who sees the photograph decides to sponsor the two women in America. However, once they land at Ellis Island, things go astray. Next, they head to Caracas where Vera once again finds meaningful work and love. Edith starts a business as a fashion designer. Vera eventually ends up in Australia and Edith in California.

I classify this novel as more romance than a work of historical fiction. Other than some flashbacks about World War II, the book focuses on the two women's personal lives. The themes of the novel are friendship, love, mother-daughter relationships, what makes a good marriage, independent women, trust, jealousy, and survival during and after a war. I liked the book but did not love it. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.

This novel did not fulfill its promising premise. Based on the experiences of the author’s mother during WWII, The Light After the War tells the story of Vera Frankel and Edith Ban, best friends who escape from a training taking them to Auschwitz in 1944. They hid out on a farm in Austria until the end of the war and then move to Naples, Italy where they find jobs. Vera goes to work for an American officer Anton Wight and immediately the two fall in love and become engaged. When Anton backs out of the marriage and disappears, Vera and Edith try to go to the United States, but are turned away at Ellis Island, settling instead in Caracas, Venezuela.

This novel would have been better billed as a light romance than historical fiction. The historical aspects do not seem well-researched and the stituations seemed contrived. The main characters are one-dimensional, and the plot is predictable. Even the ending seems too convenient to be believed. With the plethora of historical fiction novels dealing with WWII, this one just does not live up to the standards set by other authors for excitement and historical accuracy.

3.5 stars. This was an interesting story of two Jewish Hungarian young women who are like sister and their lives in the first years after the end of World War II. There were also flashbacks to their childhood and their lives during the war through the book. I found these flashbacks to be a little choppy - there wasn't always a smooth transition to them. I felt like the book was more romance than it was historical fiction. But I did enjoy it and would like to know more about the author's mother since it was based on her stories of survival during World War II. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I found this story completely compelling, and it was one of those late nights of reading and a "just one more page" mentality. The reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is because I want to know more about Anita and her mother's story, and I truly do want to know what is true and what is made up in this book. I did fall in love with the characters, and if I had not known this was based on a true story, I would have read the book in a completely different way (and probably would have thought it was far fetched). For historical fiction lovers like myself, the history behind the story makes the reading of the novel that much better. I can only hope there will be a Q&A with the author about the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. Two Jewish, Hungarian friends that were as close as sisters trying to make their way back into the world after WW2. This is a true story but I thought that a lot of things that happened were way too convenient- meeting the right people, being in the right place at the right time kind of thing.

An emotional journey through turbulent times that tugs at your heartstrings. Love, sorrow and tragedy are intertwined to form an unforgettable story.

What a journey. This book tells the story of two Jewish Hungarian girls, Vera and Edith, who escape the train to Auschwitz. Through the author’s incredible writing, we learn their strengths and weaknesses as they struggle to find freedom and make a life for themselves after World War II. Along the way they find love, careers and suffer heartbreak as they discover their new lives.

This is one of those hard to put down books. The story is not real deep or depressing as you might associate with the subject. It was more informative and hopeful. As I read the book, I felt I knew these girls, like they could have been some of my own Hungarian ancestors. The story was very detailed and descriptive. I went through a wide range of emotions while reading. I just wish the book was longer. I would have enjoyed learning more about Vera and Edith and their lives as the got older.