An evocative, fast-paced, and quite moving story of what life was like for Germans in the Soviet sector after World War II, "My Long List of Impossible Things" might be classified as young-adult fiction, but as an old(er) adult I didn't see much difference between this and an "adult" novel. The "moral"—make that "morals"—is not hammered home but instead comes to bloom organically, and the relationship between the two sisters at the heart of the book is beautifully—and because these are teen girls, after all, frustratingly—true to life. My only carps are that the narrator often seems much younger than 16 (was she "aged up" to make the book more commercial?) and the loose ends are tied up a bit too predictably—but I did tear up nonetheless.

Thank you, Annick Press and NetGalley, for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

My Long List of Impossible Things
by Michelle Barker

Annick Press Ltd.

Annick Press
Historical Fiction , Teens & YA




Pub Date 10 Mar 2020


I am reviewing a copy of My Long List of Impossible Things from Annick Press Ltd and Netgalley:


When the soviet army arrives in Germany at the end of World War 2 Katharine and her families world is turned into turmoil. The fighting has stopped but now Soviet Soldiers are forcing families to live there homes with no way to support themselves. The fighting has stopped but German society is in a state of collapse, leading to unimaginable hardships. They faced hunger with no food anywhere, and millions were forced to wander the countryside with nowhere to go. They must flee there home but Katja and her sister will face danger and violence on this harrowing Journey. Katja will have to find the strength to build a new life, even as she questions everything she thought she knew about her country.



It is Katja’s bravery and defiance that help her deal with both her emotional upheaval and her societal upheaval. But will she be able to stay true to herself and still protect her loved ones at a time when every decision can have far reaching consequences.?




My List of Impossible Things is a powerful story of a young woman’s awakening to what her country, Germany did during The Holocaust. It is a story of great pain, and loss but more importantly it is a story of hope and resilience.



I give My List of Impossible Things five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

I cannot recommend this book enough. I was excited to read something different and this book did not disappoint me.

I have really been enjoying this trend in publishing where we are getting more stories of what was happening in Europe immediately following WWII, and for that reason I was very excited when I came across My Long List of Impossible Things, a story about a German teenager that must come to terms with the truths of what her countrymen did during the war, all while trying to survive the Soviets.

I'm a little torn on a lot of aspects of this book - I thought the writing was mostly good, and I mostly enjoyed the plot, and I sometimes liked the characters ... but never enough of any one of these things to turn it from an okay book to a great one (in my eyes). The main character, Katja, seemed to act way younger than her 16 years - and while I know that teenagers have been very similar in lots of ways for hundreds of years, I would have expected a 16yo in post WWII Germany to have a little bit more awareness of herself and those around her. This made the reach for believability somewhat of a strain at times.

The author's note at the end (as well as her research notes) helped me look at the book a bit differently immediately upon finishing, and definitely helped improve my views on the overall story - so I would make sure to check that out if you pick this one up!

Thank you to NetGalley, Annick Press, & Ingram Publisher Services for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

A wonderfully written YA historical that has you cheering for Katja and will have wishing you could help her. Absolutely pick up this winner of a book. You won't be disappointed. Happy reading!

In 1945, Kaja, her mother and her sister live on a farm in Germany. Her father was a soldier who died in the war. Life is difficult as the Jews are being taken to death camps. Her Jewish piano teacher’s wife goes to visit Katja’s mother for help. She is turned away. It is decided that the three of them will leave and go to live with Aunt Ilse and Uncle Otto. Why? On their walk to them the Russian soldiers shoot the mother dead. Why? Katja and her sister Hilde decide to continue on to Aunt Ilse. After they make it to Aunt Ilse, they must make themselves essential in order to stay there. Katja is constantly reckless in what she does. She does things without thinking what the consequences will be.

This historical novel is about the chaos after World War Two ended. The Russians in this book threw innocent people from their homes. I say innocent as they just wanted to survive not because of what happened in the death camps. There are choices and consequences through the novel which made me aware of what happened after WW2. It is a novel about survival.

Disclaimer: I received an arc of this ebook from the author/publisher from Netgalley. I wasn’t obligated to write a favorable review or any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

This book started by introducing us to the two main character, Katja and her older sister Hilde. Katja is a piano player who has dreams of playing famously. They are German girls living with their mother alone since their father died in the war. It is now 1945 and the war is coming to an end, that doesn't stop Soviet soldiers from coming to their house, raiding their things and then kicking them out. Their mother has a plan and gets them to pack a bag each and they will travel to a dear friend of hers from childhood. She tells the girls it is their Aunt Ilse and Uncle Otto's place. During their travel tragedy unfolds leaving the girls alone. After weeks of traveling the war is over and they make it to Aunt Ilse's.
Throughout the book the girls are working to make themselves valuable to their Aunt and Uncle, as well as dealing with the Soviet soldiers that remain occupying the town. Katja is a brave girl who does not see herself that way, she tends to act before thinking and gets into trouble that not only risks her life, but the life of her family. The piano playing by Katja throughout this book bring such beauty to a dark time; as if there is still hope and she is not giving up.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although some of the violent scenes made me wonder about it being targeted as a young adult book.
The story was well told and the characters were interesting and I felt connected to them while reading.
Thank you @netgally and @AnnickPress for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My Long List of Impossible Things offers a unique perspective in the World War II historical fiction genre. Our heroine, Katja, is older, a teenager, rather than an adult or a child/tween. While her family wasn't pro-Nazi, they were complacent in the sense that they did their best to stay out of the fray. The story begins after the Germans have been defeated and the Soviets are sweeping through, pillaging and seeking revenge as they restore order. Even though the war is over, Katja, along with her mother and sister, are forced to flee their home. They set off for a distant "relative"; they encounter hardship on the journey and the girls are forced to continue without their mother. They must rely on subterfuge to reach safety. Once arriving at their destination, they shroud themselves in half-truths in order to gain refuge.

In the vein of The Tatooist of Auschwitz, this book tackles the question: What would you do to survive? Some will view Katja and her sister's actions with distaste while others will see the practicality in using whatever advantage one has. Every character in this book has flaws that shape their actions. Each of them have secrets and seem to approach their relationships with an attitude of what's in it for me? Which is interesting because I tend to think this attitude has only begun to exist since the 1980s.

Katja is a pianist, who had much promise and big dreams. Barker effectively wove music through the story. I found myself pulling up the pieces she mentioned to play in the background. Katja keeps a running mental list of random, significant and insignificant things in her world. This was the other element that I enjoyed most in the book.

The premise and start of this book is good. However, it was not interesting enought to hold my attention. The writing techniques and character development was a little weak.

What is the cost of doing nothing?

World War II stories are some of my favorite historical fiction to read, but I've read very little about the aftermath of the war. This young adult novel focuses on two sisters, Katja and Hilde, who are fleeing their German village after Russia invaded and took control at the end of the war. Katja is a very impulsive and naive girl who makes rash decisions that often end up causing more trouble than she anticipated. This story is about her coming to terms with her impulsiveness, as well as coming to terms with the guilt many Germans experienced as they realized the atrocities that the Nazis had committed.

This story is about survival, guilt, and responsibility. The characters felt very real, and the situations they found themselves in, as well as the ways that they each dealt with them, were very realistic and a great exploration of humanity. Some people will look for scapegoats, some will completely ignore the tragedy around them while focusing on their own survival, and others will do what they can to help. I really appreciate reading from different perspectives, and seeing the way that ordinary Germans viewed what was happening. I also greatly appreciate that the author didn't try to make the Germans out to be sympathetic victims - they may not all have participated in the Nazis crimes, but they all had to learn to live with the knowledge that they looked the other way rather than fight against what they saw happening. The author did a fantastic job of exploring that.

In this book, a young woman and her older sister must each find their own ways of surviving in post-WWII Germany, and must examine and develop their own personal ethics, beliefs, and senses of guilt and responsibility. Initially accompanied by their mother, they leave home when Soviet soldiers arrive, trekking to the home of a friend of their mother's from long ago. Once settled in a small town, they seek work, safety, and daily necessities while trying to negotiate the occupying Soviets, the black market, and other threats. The narrator isn't particularly smart or likable, but she comes across as very real, and that's what makes this book work. I think readers will wince at her immaturity and celebrate her moments of cleverness, and mourn with her and feel her confusion and ultimately have to decide how they feel about her actions and culpabilities and acts of bravery. This would be good for a book group, especially one for younger readers.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This is an amazing YA read about WWII. The theme of the choices we make floats through this book as well as the power of family. I loved this book and have been searching for other YA titles like Salt to the Sea and The WAr I finally won. This book is not graphic in the details of the holocaust and also sheds light on both German and Soviet hardships. Katja is the ma in character, a 16 year girl with her sister Holds who are forced to leave home. At the hand of Russians. A web of falsehoods along the way has Katja making a list of impossible tgings. The novel has many great talking points for discussion such as what makes a hero? I loved the chapter titles and simply everything else about this book. Well researched and written; I can't wait to read more by this author!!!!

The writing style of this book feels like it's more appropriate for a younger than YA public, but not quite middle grade. But also... this book talks about sexual abuse, rape, violence, genocide, etc. SO BEWARE.

I loved that this book was written from a young German girl's POV during WWII, reminiscent of Salt to the Sea. It was interesting to read and reflect about how a lot of people in Germany weren't necessarily siding with Hitler, and if they did, it was often to protect themselves and their families. Many people didn't quite know what was happening to the Jewish people, only that there were rumours about concentration camps, while nothing seemed certain. While others knew what was happening, but decided to turn a blind eye, in order to stay alive. Like the following quote sais, "any German who survived the war will drag it behind them forever", meaning that the German people let Hitler take power and pass his laws, and they did nothing to stop him. & how they will drag this knowledge for the rest of their lives, knowing that they are partly responsible for the death of so many people... the eradication of so many families.

About the writing style : I have issues with the fact that the first chapters are set during the war, then there's a MAJOR plot twist and boom! You skip to months later, in a post-war Germany. No matter how some elements were heartbreaking to read about, the twists and turns still felt predictable, and I couldn't quite connect with the characters. I did appreciate how every single issue was solved towards the end of the book, even those that seemed secondary. The ending was so beautiful and hopeful! 2.5⭐

I thought that this book took a unique approach to WW2 fiction and overall I enjoyed the writing and story it presented.

This was my first time reading a book detailing a German's viewpoint after WWII when Russia invades Germany. Katja, her sister Hilde, and their mother are forced out of their house when Soviet troops take over their village. The family begins a long and dangerous journey to another town, hoping that a long distance relative will be there to offer them food and protection. Their luck only grows worse as they travel, and Katja and Hilde learn they have to rely on each other if they want to make it to their relative's house alive.

Katja was written as a sheltered and naive girl with no understanding or idea of what was actually happening around her. Her mother and Hilde made sure she was kept in the dark when the war was going on. When Katja learned about the death camps, she refused to believe they existed, and then the Soviets explained that they were enacting revenge on the Germans for what the Germans did to them. The more Katja learned about what her countrymen did, the more she connected the dots on past memories and realized that the truth had been there from the start.

I loved reading Katja's story, but her flaws of instantly trusting and not thinking before she spoke/acted were frustrating since she made the same mistakes over and over again. I don't believe she actually learned from all her mistakes since she never changed. On the other hand, she was quite brave and that I admired.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

There's a post WWII German novel memoir trope, showing how much Germans suffered, pleading sympathy for what they didn't know, making themselves out like the ultimate victim..

This novel isn't that..

Barker makes it quite clear that Katja's life during the war is lived within a bubble of prosperity and ignorance. That bubble suddenly bursts as the war ends with the arrival of the Soviets and her family is turfed from their home with minutes' notice and must embark on a horrific trek. Katja experiences the sort of upheaval that millions of Eastern European civilians had experienced during the previous six years of brutal Nazi and Soviet occupation.

Barker's creates fully fleshed characters with all of their flaws and foibles and because there is no sugar-coating, the story resonates as utterly authentic. This is an absorbing story and I found myself weeping more than once. I liked everything about this novel. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. "My Long List of Impossible Things" will be released on March 10th, 2020. 

Summary

The arrival of the Soviet army in Germany at the end of World War II sends sixteen-year-old Katja and her family into turmoil. The fighting has stopped, but German society is in collapse, resulting in tremendous hardship. With their father gone and few resources available to them, Katja and her sister are forced to flee their home, reassured by their mother that if they can just reach a distant friend in a town far away, things will get better. But their harrowing journey brings danger and violence, and Katja needs to summon all her strength to build a new life, just as she’s questioning everything she thought she knew about her country.

Katja’s bravery and defiance help her deal with the emotional and societal upheaval.  But how can she stay true to herself and protect the people she loves when each decision has such far-reaching consequences?

Acclaimed writer Michelle Barker’s second novel explores the chaos and destruction of the Second World War from a perspective rarely examined in YA fiction—the implications of the Soviet occupation on a German population grappling with the horrors of Nazism and its aftermath.  
Review

I will admit, I requested this book solely on the basis of "it has a girl playing a piano on the cover, and I'm always looking for YA about music [b/c I'm a violinist and I constantly look out for books about teenagers who are classical musicians like myself]," and somewhat because I enjoy historical fiction. I don't usually love war stories, though, so I was a little apprehensive. As it happened, this was anything but a typical war story; it had a very fresh angle on the reality of civilian life in wartime that I really appreciated. 

Barker primarily built up that unique voice by telling the story of a recovering nation through the eyes of a young woman who's largely been (up until now) somewhat sheltered from the horrors of the war raging around her. Katja has, obviously, suffered through the loss of family members, heavy rationing, and general decline in standards of living along with the rest of Germany, but as to the political and human rights sides of the story, she might as well have been living under a rock. Her life hasn't really been interrupted in a huge way by the war - times are leaner, but her town hasn't been bombed, she's unaware why her friends and neighbors have begun disappearing, and when she hears talk of death camps, she has no reason to believe that they exist. We, the readers, who are presumably aware of some of the history of WWII Germany, are in the unique position of knowing far more about what happened during the war than Katja does; her ignorance stands out much more in light of that. She's living in a world where unspeakable horrors are taking place all around her, but for the most part, Katja is still just a teenage girl with teenage-girl concerns (albeit a lot more hyperfocused on finding a piano to practice on than the average teen - I sympathized with that). For that, the story is very human. The war doesn't make a hero of Katja or anyone she knows. They're all ordinary people doing the best they can to stay afloat in hard times, few of them aware just how dark their times are. Their suffering has been immense, but few realize how much worse it could be. Telling a war story - something countless authors have done - in the voice of an uninformed civilian, was a smart move. It raises ethical questions about the nature of war and complicity, and it makes a time period most of us today can't even imagine seem incredibly real. [Note: "My Long List of Impossible Things" is NOT a commentary on Nazism, nor does it seem like it was intended to be; instead, it's about how war affects civilians. I say that just as a warning, since those expecting the book to have a lot to say about the evils of the Nazi Party will probably be disappointed that that topic isn't really addressed much.]

Other than the deep stuff covered in that ridiculously long-winded paragraph, this was an intriguing little novel. Katja's intentional ignorant voice came off as obnoxious at times (probably on purpose), and I definitely wanted to throttle her on several occasions - probably because I knew I would've been equally stupid if I were in her shoes. War stories either tend to paint their characters as either heroes or tragic figures; that Katja is neither - she's a teenage girl, and as petty, idealistic, and unthinking as any other - makes it easy to insert oneself into the time period and examine how one might react in the same situations. And, on a much shallower note, I loved the recurring theme of the importance of music to Katja. As a classical musician, I got that on a spiritual level (not really but you know what I mean), and I *loved* Katja's annoyingly incessant quirky-composer-facts. It wasn't all that much of the book, but it was one of my favorite parts. Even the romance (SPOILER: doesn't work out too well - I actually loved how Katja handled that, showed a lot of growth) was well-done; Katja and Arkady's bonding over music was *heart eyes.* (Reminds me of myself and my current crush, a pianist who I sometimes play duets with, and who 99% probably doesn't like me back, but still. Irrelevant.) 

Though the voice was occasionally juvenile, I think it was intended to be as such; thus, I'm not going to count that as a knock against the writing. On the whole, I greatly enjoyed "My Long List of Impossible Things," and found that it had a lot to say about what it means to be a human being in a time and a place where human life doesn't seem to have much value anymore. 

ENDNOTES

Short Summary: a story we all know, told by an eyewitness who doesn't. 

Recommended For: fans of historical fiction or anyone with a particular interest in WWII, especially the civilian side. 

Objectionable Content: the story is far removed from the actual battlefield, but the brutality of the occupying Soviet forces isn't sugarcoated, and some of the events described are quite disturbing. In addition, characters frequently curse in German; Hilde, Katja's older sister, makes lewd comments twice to shock her sister. 

Rating: 4.5/5 Befuddled Emu