This wasn't at all what I expected, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It did take a little bit to catch and pull me in, but once it did I couldn't wait to see how the story went.

I thought this was a very powerful book about the end of the war and the aftermath that happened and how it was still hard for people to pick up the pieces and some areas were still under control of Soviet forces. Katja was an interesting character. She is a young girl who is driven out of her home with her mother and sister. Then tragedy happens and Katja and her sister Hilda make it to a small village where relatives live and see if they will take them in. While living there the hardship is real and survival is also real, but at what cost. Katja must choose between right and wrong. The only peace she can get is playing this old piano she finds in the streets. In her mind music always makes things better.

This was such an interesting WWII historical fiction in that it told of the aftermath of the war from a German perspective during the Soviet occupation of Germany.

Katja, a young girl and her sister are forced to leave their home with their mother and search for an old friend of their mothers that the hope can provide them with a safe place to stay.

At times this was a heartbreaking read, Katja was such a brave young woman who often defied the Soviets (in some nail biting ways) that was often impulsive, but yet so strongly spoke to her character.

This was an interesting historical fiction read about 2 young sisters living in Germany after the war. It talks about how the Germans felt. Did they know exactly what was going on in the concentration camps? Were they at fault because of what Hitler did? I enjoyed the characters but I thought there was too much information about being a concert pianist in it. The story also dragged out a little too long for me. I also thought the ending was a little unrealistic given the way the aunt was acting in the whole book. But all in all, it was an interesting read.

We don't read a lot about Germany after the war. The Nazis are so universally viewed as villains that it is a tall order to make a sympathetic character of a citizen of Nazi Germany. But Baker has certainly done it. It helps that she took the easy path, making her characters Nazis of necessity rather than true believers. We see here the devastation of a culture, entire cities laid to waste, the desperation of every day life, and atrocities committed in what is ostensibly a time of peace.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
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Katja’s world is turned upside down when the Soviet army arrives in Germany at the end of World War II. Katja, her sister and mother flee their home only with the things they can carry. The dangerous journey takes a dark turn when Katja’s mother is attacked by Russian soldiers. Katja struggles to remain true to herself and protect those she loves during the emotional and social upheaval of post-war Germany. How will Katja and her sister survive?

Books written from the perspective of Germans after World War II aren't that common in fiction, for the obvious reasons. But this book explores the innocence and ignorance of children, the fallout that the German women, children, and elderly dealt with after the war, and the reactions people had to what the Nazis did. It's beautifully written, a plaintive cry from a teenage girl who's life changed because of a war and who wrestles with her conscience and desire to live. I loved this book for showing a side that isn't always seen.

This book kept my attention the whole time. From the perspective of a teen Katja and her sister, this book gives you a reality of what survival looked like during WWII. As these girls have lost everything except each other, traveling to a another town to people they don’t even know, while trying to keep together what they have left behind, allows you just a taste at what it felt like to live during this time. This book is heart wrenching, time and time again, but in the end shows that there is still good in people in difficult times, even when it is a life or death situation.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

I enjoyed reading several aspects of this book! The pacing was wonderful, characters were well drawn, and the reading experience on the whole was delightful.

I usually don't read historical fiction, but I am trying to venture out. I am very excited to get into this and see how I feel about the genre. Books I read are usually contemporary or fantasy, sometimes I read Horror.

We start off in Germany in 1945, so we already know something heavy is going to go down. I was ready to get into this book, and learn something new. What I wasn't ready for was my heart to be completely broken. Barker really knew what it was going to take to just shatter me into pieces.

At first I loved all of the characters, then we got a few chapters in and I did not care for HIlde. She was snarky and mean, just gave our girl so much grief for loving something/ I understand a lot was happening, but isn't that when they should stick together. One of my main goals for the book was for her to realize how much she was hurting her sister.

Overall I gave the book a 4.5/5 stars. I loved most of it, but there were some parts I felt like it dragged. Will definitely be picking up more books like this.

I am always looking for new historical fiction to suggest to my students. My Long List of Impossible Things is heavy and at times hard to read for younger readers. A story that must be told nonetheless.

A serious young adult historical novel. This book was very well written with thought provoking content.

I wanted so badly to enjoy My Long List of Impossible Things but it didn't work for me. The storyline and characters just didn't interest me.

Thanks to Annick Press for providing a digital review copy of My Long List of Impossible Things.

Some books have sad endings. Some books have sad beginnings. Some books have something tragic happen in their center to shift the narrative. My Long List of Impossible Things looked at those books, said bet, and proceeded to stomp on my heart every few pages.

I love that absolutely nobody in this book is a 'good person' because immediately after WWII, there's not much time to be entirely good. A great book with complex characters, a beautifully story about hope and loss and guilt and sacrifice, and a lot of german swears.

This book jumps right into some heavy topics that young German teens faced during the aftermath of WWII. The ‘Ivan’s’ had invaded and came to treat the German people how their country had been treated. Cold blooded murder, rape and stealing the livelihood of innocent people are all issues our young character, Katja must deal with. Her mother and sister had tried to shield her from the reality but soon the reality of their new world was something they couldn’t hide her from. Katja is quite the spitfire and often times her boldness got her into some major trouble. This was a wonderful YA WWII historical fiction and quite the page turner..

Michelle Barker's second YA novel, My Long List of Impossible Things, explores the aftermath of World War II through the eyes of a German teenager. It depicts the struggles of a country and a people reeling from the horrors of war, silent compliance with genocide and Nazism, while being occupied by another dictatorial regime, the Soviet Union. Barker treats this subject with care to make it much more of a nuanced story, rather than a work that attempts to garner sympathy for Germany in this period. She captures the mental, emotional, and sometimes physical journey or a girl living in a bubble during the war, rarely coming into contact with those things that terrify her, until her life is upended and she must make a new way for herself. This theme is something that many of us are feeling in the present day, adjusting to our new normal, which looks so different from what it was days, weeks, months, or even years ago.

This heavy subject is presented in way that young readers, young adults, and college students can easily digest and understand another view of the aftermath of the war, rarely depicted in mass media. A couple of warnings for scenes depicting or referencing sexual assault, rape, graphic violence, and genocide. This book evoked an emotional response on more than one occasion for me due to it's realism and highly stylistic writing. I found myself feeling exactly what Katja felt in those moments: terror, determination, love, fear, desperation, etc.

"You never knew when something would happen for the last time. If you did, you’d cling to every precious second."

This sentiment is echoing so loudly here in the present day. This novel is not only timely, but something that so many of us should read. Though we are not facing the same dangers that Katja and Hilde eventually faced in their narrative, we are facing tumultuous change throughout our world.

The pacing of this work is spot on and the character development is wonderfully done! I could not have been happier to have had the chance to read and review this book. Michelle Barker is a top notch author! I would recommend this book to all young adults, college students, and anyone interested in post WWII historical fiction. Really a superb read!

This book is out now from Annick Press at most major retailers!

I received a galley copy of this book in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.

Michelle Barker's goodreads page and her website is: https://michellebarker.ca/.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book a bit scattered. I had to reread multiple chapters just to figure out if I missed something. It wasn't bad but it didn't feel cohesive.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

A few weeks ago I was working on a data project for a client and encountered the details of a woman born in Germany in the final months of World War II. My first reaction was that I wanted to meet her: what fascinating stories she could tell. Imagine her experiences growing up in Germany in the shadow of the war? Apart from the obvious privacy issues stopping me, I realized I didn’t need to. I had My Long List of Impossible Things by Michelle Barker on my iPad.

There are a few differences between the woman I discovered and Katja. Katja was 16 as the war ended and the Soviet army moved in. She was secretly taught piano by a Jewish man during the war and evacuated with her mother and sister when the Soviet army took over her village. Oh, and Katja is fictitious.

My Long List of Impossible Things is Michelle’s second novel that’s so well-researched that it could be non-fiction. I found myself looking up details of wartime Berlin after The House of One Thousand Eyes. I didn’t for this (because I knew it was fiction, but the world building matches the real-life stories we know from that time.

This is getting very scattered. You have the synopsis above, so I won’t waste time on that. Instead, I’ll say what I appreciated about the novel. From the first instance, I adored Katja’s mother. Her phrasing and strength drew me to her. I used the word appreciate because there are some things in the book, which made it excellent but love is an inappropriate word. There are deaths, and a rape, and inferred prostitution. It’s all, unfortunately, normal for an early post-war situation and historically accurate, but we prefer to think armistice leads to tea parties and fun. The first death is brutal and hit me hard. It was unexpected, and I felt an affection for the character. Weirdly, more than I had for Katja, but she grew on me. I also appreciate the depth of the characters and the lies they told themselves to cope. Death affected all. The war took away the males, and no one knew if they would return. So those at home played pretend, even though they knew it was pretend.

Is this the worst review I’ve written? I feel My Long List of Impossible Things deserves better, but it’s not happening, so you’ll have to read it for yourself. Really, please read it. Partially for the historically accurate rarely told story, but also because it’s a great book.

Katerina (Katja) is a 16-year-old girl living in Germany at the end of World War II. She loves to play the piano and wants to be a concert pianist one day. Her world is shattered when armed Soviets soldiers come to her family’s farmhouse in Pomerania and force them to leave their home. Her father died in the war so she only has her older sister Hilde and her mother. They embark on foot to seek refuge in Fahlhoff where her Aunt Ilse and Uncle Otto live and own a dress shop. This journey leads Katja to really reflect on who she is and in the end what role she had in this war.

I don’t know if it was the time I read it but this book was a bummer to read. I did learn some things about the end of WWII and what was going on then that I hadn’t known about. Katja was a strong protagonist. She stood up for what she believed in despite people telling her not to for fear of the consequences. The ending was abrupt and the romance in the story cut short.