What is Written on the Tongue by Anne Lazurko was a well researched historical fiction novel about aspects of World War II that I had not known about before I listened to this audiobook. It was narrated by Alex Purra. His lack of intonation and somewhat monotone voice made it difficult to listen to at first. I slowly got used to his voice and after a while it did not bother me as much. This is the first book that I have read by Anne Lazurko. What is Written on the Tongue was a slow build but once I got into the story I could not stop listening. It was very sad in many parts and I found myself shedding quite a few tears. There was a dual timeline but the two timelines were rather close in years. I got a good picture of what life was like in the Netherlands during the German occupation during World War II through the eyes and voice of seventeen year old Sam. Sam often wrote about what he had witnessed, what he experienced and his feelings during those times in notebooks that he kept hidden. The second timeline was again portrayed through the eyes of Sam,who was now twenty years old. It took place in the jungles of Indonesia on the Island of Java. I learned how Sam and others were recruited by the government of the Netherlands right as World War II ended. Sam was sent to the Dutch East Indies to the Island of Java immediately after surviving World War II. He had been forced to do hard labor by the Germans. Sam had barely arrived home to his family when he found himself being recruited to fight in another war. The Netherlands wanted to take back control of the Dutch East Indies colony. It had fallen into the hands of the Japanese during World War II. The Netherlands recruited young soldiers in 1947 and 1948 to go into the jungles of Indonesia to fight the Indonesian rebels to regain control of their colony. Sam tried to honor his duty to the Netherlands and do as he was recruited to do. Along the way, though, Sam started to question if he and his fellow soldiers were doing to the Indonesian people what the Germans had done to the people of the Netherlands. It became difficult for Sam to reconcile his feelings.

I had not been aware of the hardships of the Dutch people under the control of the Germans or the Netherlands involvement in the Dutch West Indies after World War II. Some of the people the author portrayed were based on real people. What is Written on the Tongue was a result of stories Anne Lazurko’s father shared with her about his time he spent on the Island of Java. It was a story about morals, friendship, right vs. wrong, exploring one’s conscience, war, love, how homosexuality was viewed and family. It was well written and Sam’s character and most of the other characters were well developed and believable. I am glad I had the opportunity to listen to this audiobook because I learned about aspects of World War II that I knew nothing or very little about. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to ECW Press for allowing me to listen to this advanced copy of this audiobook through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you ECW Press Audio and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.
I am pretty certain I would not have picked it up on my own, even though most books I read or listen to are historical fiction. It seems most historical fiction runs in two or more timelines, however, I can’t recall two timelines so close in years, but so starkly different in events and settings.

Ms. Lazurko does a fantastic job capturing the scenes of war and the complications of human.struggle between right and wrong. This book is filled with pearls of wisdom throughout. As for character development, especially with the protagonist, Sam, it takes a great deal of humility to be open to looking outside yourself and realize your reality is not everyone’s reality.

I will admit I had a difficult time with the first chapter. The setting, culture and events of Indonesia was something I knew very little about. Typically I would need the hard copy of the book to reference unfamiliar terms and places as I listened. Since that was not an option with this early release, I did some googling to assist me with visualization. But how could I not be sucked in from the start as the book opened with “pecker checks”!

Finally, I can’t really decide how I feel about the narrator, so I will leave it at that.