The Orphan’s Mother is heartbreaking. Emma is a courageous mum of two children, older Sophie and Jacob 4. She has to make a decision no mum of multiple children should ever make and that is to choose between them. She is in between a rock and a hard place as she leaves a poorly Jacob at the hospital doors. Whatever she does will lead to the biggest mum guilt there is. But she won’t forget her promise and that is to find him if they ever got separated. Which in turn leads Emma on a mission of many years.

Jacob is taken in by a Polish nurse called Irene who wants a child of her own. After many years of bringing him up, she secretly hopes he is hers to stay. But this isn’t so. The Red Cross is reuniting lost children with their families and they come calling. Poor Jacob doesn’t really remember much of his previous life and now he is to be reunited with his German birth mum.

The story focuses on Emma and Irene. It’s full of sadness, and hope with heartwarming moments. A wonderful read, fast-paced and cleverly written for many fans of historical WWII novels. The Orphan’s Mother is partly based on a true story.

Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for my copy.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I enjoy historical fiction books, especially if they are set during WWII. The research the author did is admirable. And the connection she makes with the characters shows through in her writing. This was a different view of WWII than I have read in the past. Experiencing the advance of the Red Army while watching the Nazi Army evacuate causes differing emotions … depending on what side you are on. This is such an emotional journey as you get a child’s point of view.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookoutre for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Keep the biggest box of tissues you can find handy while reading Marion Kummerow’s The Orphan’s Mother because this book is so poignant and moving it will sever your heartstrings.

With the Red Russian army advancing ever closer, Emma is desperate to escape Poland. With her two children relying on her, Emma is willing to do whatever it takes to get them to safety, so in the icy grip of winter, the little family flees the country with just the clothes on their backs and their hearts full of hope of a brighter future ahead. However, Emma’s plans are thwarted when her son Jacob falls ill. In desperate need of medical attention, a distraught Emma takes him to hospital and hands him over to a kindly nurse. Emma promises Jacob that they will be reunited the very next day and that she will always be by his side to protect him. However, the next day, Emma returns to the hospital and finds it deserted and her son gone.

Beside herself with worry about her son’s whereabouts and heartbroken that she broke her promise to him that they will always be together, Emma is determined to move mountains to find Jacob. However, Jacob is not her sole priority as she has her daughter Sophie to think about as well. Getting Sophie to safety becomes paramount to Emma – but so too does her determination to be reunited with her son.

Will Emma ever manage to get her family back together again? Can she get them all to safety? Or will all of her sacrifices prove to be in vain?

If The Orphan’s Mother does not make you sob like a baby, I don’t know what will. A fantastic historical tale of love, courage, bravery and hope, The Orphan’s Mother is a harrowing, emotional, uplifting and poignant historical novel that broke my heart. Marion Kummerrow writes so well about the period she is writing about that the fear, tension and jeopardy her characters face is palpable and so real, you will be on tenterhooks throughout.

Marion Kummerow is a very gifted writer who has once again written an unforgettable historical novel with her latest novel, The Orphan’s Mother.

A Mother's Heartbreaking Choice

If you had to choose between one child or the other could you make that decision? It had to be one of the hardest and most heartbreaking decisions a mother could make.

Poland has been under Nazi German rule during the war. Now the Soviet Army is advancing on Poland closer every day. Emma is German and her husband is fighting in the German Army. She knows that to keep her children and herself safe from the Soviets she must escape Poland.

With her friend and her friend's mother and a few others they leave their town in Poland and walk with a cart for the luggage toward the border. On the way her son Jacob becomes very ill. They make it to a town with a hospital and tents set up for the German refugees fleeing Poland. She hands Jacob to a nice nurse and goes back to the camp as she is not allowed to go with Jacob.

With the Soviet advance the German's are evacuating the camp and transporting the refugees by train across the border. Emma goes to the hospital to find Jacob but the hospital is empty it has been evacuated and she knows not where they have taken her son.

She goes back to the camp vowing to stay and search for her son, but then her daughter Sophia grabs her hand and the soldiers push them toward the trains for evacuation. She is unable to go back and search for Jacob but she vows she will search until she finds him.

The story goes to Jacob and what happens to him. where he is and how he is living.

Will Emma and Jacob ever find each other? Poland becomes part of the Iron Curtain under Soviet Rule and Emma lives in West Germany with Sophia. How will they ever find each other?

You will not want to miss this story and how it ends. I recommend this book it is some good reading.

Thanks to Marion Kummerow for writing a great story, to Bookouture for publishing it and to NetGalley for making a copy available for me to read and review.

Loved it as I do all Marions books. Very real characters and emotion on every page. Particularly devastating given whats happening in the world again - we never learn.

This is a story that I think will stay with me forever, at times I had tears streaming down my face. It's a heartwrenching WWII story that is written so beautifully with precision and care. I could not stop turning the pages, it was so absorbing that I read the whole story in a few hours. I loved how it told the story from both points of few in the war. I highly recommend reading this.
My rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5

1945, the German-Polish border: With Nazis on one side and Soviet forces approaching on the other, a mother and her little boy are torn apart, and so begins an unforgettable tale of courage, heartbreak and motherhood in wartime.



“If you ever get lost, Jacob, you need to stay where you are and wait, because I’ll come looking for you. And I’ll always find you.”

In the icy grip of winter, Emma is trying to escape Poland, with her two young children and little more than the clothes on their backs. With the Russian Red Army advancing, she knows their safety relies on them crossing the border. She swears to herself that she’ll do whatever it takes to keep their family together.

But before they can reach the border, her little boy Jacob falls ill, his once-sparkling blue eyes getting dimmer with each moment that passes. And Emma knows she has to get him to a hospital, where she hands him to a kind nurse.

She feels sure they will be reunited the next day. But then the bombing starts. And when she reaches the hospital again, she finds it deserted, her darling son gone.

Though her heart tells her she has to stay and find him, she faces an impossible choice. She would risk her own life for Jacob in a heartbeat, but as her daughter Sophie’s cold, little hand slips into her own, Emma is forced to make a heartbreaking decision. Unable to find any trace of her beloved son, she knows she must at least get her daughter to safety.

But she can never forget the promise she made to her little boy. That if they were ever separated, she’d come looking for him. That she’d always find him.

Whatever the danger, whatever the risk. She knows what she has to do. Because there is nothing stronger than a mother’s love…
#netgalley #theorphansmother

Ooh what a heartfelt story about two mothers fighting for different things.
Nearing the the end of WW2, Emma along with her two children and closet friends leave their German/Polish home before the Russians arrive. Whilst crossing the country her son falls ill and at her first chance she takes him to the hospital.
Being enturned in a refugee camp she has to leave her son in capable hands of the Polish medical staff. Circumstances change and Emma is forced to live her son in the hospital.
Alone, Jacob is rescued by Irene a Polish nurse. Together with her husband they raise him as their own son.
The plight of refugees is brought to life and like modern day we can see that their lives are no different.
Will Emma ever be reunited with Jacob or will she was feel guilty for leaving him?

The Orphan’s Mother is an all consuming, powerful and deeply moving wartime narrative. This is the second novel I have had the privilege of reading and reviewing from Marion Kummerow as last year I read her poignant novel Not Without My Sister, which left a deep impression on me. Yet again The Orphan’s Mother has had a visceral reaction on me as it explores the devastating impact of war on families, especially the impact on innocent children.

This powerful story begins in early 1945 in the Polish town of Łódź (Lodz in English), a town where Poles and Germans had mingled mostly in peace together for centuries. Emma, a German has lived in Lodz all her life, growing up there, marrying there, bringing up her beloved children Sophie and Jacob there. With her husband away fighting on the German frontline and the Russian Red Army fast approaching to liberate Poland from German occupation, Emma decides to flee her home with her children. She knows that to ensure the safety of her family she needs to cross the border.

The novel is also set in the Polish town Poznań where Irena, a Polish nurse, having suffered at the brutal hands of the Nazis, is desperate for the Red Army to liberate her country. Emma and her children arrive in Poznań as refugees. This town only means to be a stop on the family’s journey but four year old Jacob becomes increasingly ill. Emma has no choice but to take Jacob to the hospital. Emma is refused entry into the hospital so reluctantly hands Jacob over to a nurse, knowing that this is her son’s only chance of survival. That nurse is Irena.

The next day Emma is determined to return to the hospital to retrieve Jacob but as the Red Army enters the town, the Battle of Poznań commences. All the refugees have to flee the town and all the patients also have to flee the hospital. Irena detests the Germans and all they have done to her and her country, yet she knows she cannot leave Jacob, an innocent four year old German boy to the fate of the Red Army.

Yes, this novel is predictable, especially as the title is The Orphan’s Mother. But this is a powerful and important story that needs to be predictable, especially as it is inspired by true life events.

Marion Kummerow’s writing is concise, captivating and emotionally charged. I was so consumed by her powerful story that I read The Orphan’s Mother in a day (and believe me, as I’m not the quickest reader, that is something I don’t think I have ever done before).

Yet again Marion Kummerow introduced me to an element of World War 2 that I have never really explored before. When she began writing this powerful novel the devastating war in Ukraine had not started. However it is horrifying to realise that The Orphan’s Mother resonates with what is happening in the world today. This is why historical fiction is so important.

Thank you to Sarah Hardy from Bookouture for inviting me to the blog tour of The Orphan’s Mother which is released today (29 July 2022). This is a heart wrenching World War 2 novel inspired by fact that completely consumed me. I really couldn’t put it down. The characters and their fates are unforgettable.

A German mother's terrible choice: to flee the approaching Soviets with her son who is ill or leave him to get the medical help he needs to live? Emma is a German woman living in Poland at the end of WW2. She abandons her home to save her children but Jacob falls ill on the journey and she fears he could die. They are separated when the city is evacuated but Emma never gives up hope they will be reunited...
The Orphan's Mother is a hugely emotional historical novel set in Germany and Poland in the 1940s and 50s. I felt that the situation was quite unique and not one I had read about in other books set during this period.
There is antagonism and ill feeling between the Germans and Poles which impacts on the characters of this novel. Jacob is saved from certain death in the hospital by nurse Irena. She is unable to have children herself due to an episode of Nazi brutality but taking on a German child creates a difficult situation for her and her husband. The couple grow to love Jacob but the truth of his adoption leaves a feeling of dread. Meanwhile, Emma never gives up hope of finding her son. She relentlessly searches for him which fractures her other relationships.
The premise of this book is so heart wrenching. There are some mentions of violence as well as an implied rape but the main focus in on the emotional side of the plot. The women are vividly portrayed and their terrible situations brought to life. It was very easy to identify with the emotions of both Emma and Irena especially as they both have the best interests of Jacob in mind at all times. I really didn't know how I wanted the situation to resolve itself and was completely gripped as events unfolded.
The Orphan's Mother is a thought provoking, heartbreaking book with a fascinating dilemma at its centre.

This story asks the question, just how far will a mother go to protect the life of her child?
Emma must make an impossible decision, one no mother should ever have to make. To leave her sick child behind, risking his life while taking her other child to relative safety.
Emma and her two children are forced to flee their home along with others from her town when the impending occupation of the Soviet Red Army quickly approaches. While on their journey, which is mostly done on foot, pulling a wagon behind them, the toil it is taking on everyone quickly begins to show. Already undernourished and weak from their journey Emma's youngest child Jacob falls seriously ill. When they arrive in the town of Posen and are herded into a camp for refugees Emma seeks help for Jacob at the hospital. But when Emma tries to retrieve Jacob from the hospital, as all refugees are being evacuated, she is stopped by the soldiers not allowing her to return to her son. Emma is forced to do the unthinkable and abandon her child, praying that there is someone with a kind heart who is willing to take care of her little boy. An impossible decision for any mother to make. I can nnot imagine what she must have been feeling, it had to tear her heart out, the pain had to be unfathomable.
This story is loosely based on the stories of the children who got lost or separated from their families and there were many.
Marion Kummerow is one of my favorite WWII historical fiction authors, I have read many of her books and each one is better than the last. This one is exceptional!
The Orphan's Mother is available now, so don't miss out on a great read. Thank you to Bookouture and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.

Emma, her husband Herbert and their two children, Sophie 7 and Jacob 4, are some of the many Germans living alongside the predominantly Polish population, in Lodz, Poland. The Germans look down on the Poles and treat them badly, as inferior persons. The Poles are praying for the Russians to arrive and liberate them, the Germans are fleeing for their lives, hearing about the atrocities perpetrated by the troops. Herbert is in the Wehrmacht fighting against the advancing Russians, but he made Emma promise to get their children to safety in Germany if the Russians got close. Emma and her children, along with neighbours and their families join together to try and get to Western Germany. At least the British will be in charge and they are known to be more humane. The weather is terrible and some die, while others get very sick on the trek. Jacob is near death's door when the group arrives in Posen and Emma leaves Jacob overnight at the Catholic Hospital for treatment. She plans on going back the next day to get him, but that doesn't happen due to the Russians arriving and all Germans being evacuated. Irena is a Polish nurse who works on the children's ward and when the hospital is evacuated, no on comes to get little Jacob. Not knowing what else to do, she takes him home to protect him, hoping to find his mother the next day. It doesn't happen. Irena and her doctor husband Luka are childless, and agree to foster Jacob/Jakub until the Red Cross can find his family. Will Jacob ever be reunited with his family? Will Emma ever give up looking for her baby boy?

I read a lot of historical fiction, especially surrounding the time before, during and after WW2, so I am always looking for unique stories. Once again, Marion Kummerow has found a series of events that are not well known. Please make sure you read the author's note at the end of the book, to find out the inspiration for this story, as well as what parts are fiction and what the story is based on. My heart broke for Emma. As a mother, I know I would give up my life to protect my children, but when you have another child who also needs you, those decisions become difficult. Sophie was hard to like, but I had to keep reminding myself that she was just a child herself and everything that happened to her and her family affected her during that all important period of development. Then there is Jacob. This young boy was abandoned with people he couldn't even understand. He had no idea what had really happened or what his mother was going through. He found a family, was adopted and was loved, what more could he want? This is a heartbreaking story about war and the effects on the families, the difficult decisions they had to make, the situations they dealt with and the ramifications into the future. If you enjoy historical fiction, especially about events and organizations that are not that well known, then I recommend you pick up The Orphan's Mother by Marion Kummerow.

Fleeing Poland from the advancing Red Army on one side and Hitler's Nazis on the other, Emma and her 2 young children flee for their lives. Having to leave her ill son Jacob in a hospital, she takes her daughter Sophie, never forgetting her son and vowing to return for him. Poignant and heartbreaking, an excellent historical novel. Recommended.

This is a heartbreaking novel set in post World War II Poland and Germany. It is about a mother who takes her very ill son to a hospital and then loses him when the hospital is deserted after the Red Army invades. It is also about another mother who takes the boy, Jacob, into her home and heart. There are so many casualties in war, even if you survive. Jacob, Emma, and Irena all suffer in this story about war, losses, sons, and mothers. How does a little boy acclimate to losing his mother twice in different ways? How does a mother find a child in the aftermath of a war where so many are missing? How does a woman who lost a child, gained a child, and then lost a child again cope with all this misery? This story takes a look at that and more. The bottom line of all of this is that war puts innocent people into horrible situations that are out of their control. How do the innocent cope?

I received a free copy of this book from Bookouture via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

On the Germany and Poland Border 1945, German Nazi’s are invading Poland and soon take over Lodz. Emma needs to escape Poland in order to survive and her first priority is to keep her family safe and together. The Russians are advancing and Emma knows it’s now or never…they must flee. Emma leaves with her two young children and all they have is the clothes they are wearing. It’s the middle of winter and the middle of the night, and just before she reaches the border, her son Jacob is sick. Emma needs to get Jacob to the hospital and fast. Jacob spends the night in the hospital and Emma knows it’s just one night and he needs the help to get well. Emma arrives back at the hospital early the next morning only to find the hospital deserted and Jacob is gone.

This heart-breaking and emotional story had me in tears so many times. It is sure to tug at your heartstrings over and over again. I devoured this book in one sitting as it is completely unputdownable. This is a story of a mother’s unconditional love for her children, and willingness to do anything and everything for their survival. The courage portrayed by people in these horrific times is so inspiring. The determination that they demonstrated, and the hope that they had to reunite families that were torn apart, is absolutely heart-breaking. This story is full of believable characters and ones that you are sure to form an emotional attachment to. Make sure you have the box of tissues nearby when you read this one as you will definitely need them.

Thank you Marion Kummerow for such a wonderful story. I found this book to be captivating and very emotional. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I definitely recommend it.

The Orphan’s Mother by Marion Kummerow is a story packed full of emotion, heartbreak, sacrifice, questions and a horrible dilemma. What do you do when faced with the toughest decision you will ever make in your life? Is choosing one child over another the right thing to do? What happens when said decision has deep impacting consequences that change the course of the person involved life forever? When faced with a decision that must be made in a split instant how do you know that you have made the right one? Can you live with what you have done knowing the outcome may not be as a positive one? This is a story that focuses on two families during the later part of World War Two. Both are different in their construction, but they are families none the less and the themes of love, sacrifice, courage and remorse all feature heavily throughout.

There was no messing about with a long-winded unnecessary introduction instead we got to the heart of the story straightaway and the book was all the better for it. The story is set in Poland and alternates between Emma and Irena. Emma’s husband Herbert is away fighting the Russians. Her family are of German origin and live in the city of Lodz and she has two young children Sophie aged 7 and Jacob aged four. Irena is Polish and a nurse on a children’s ward in the city of Posen and married to a doctor named Luka. War has torn their lives apart but they are about to be tested even more as the Russians advance further throughout Poland. For Irena it means her city will be freed from German control but for Emma her home place is about to be overrun and what potentially could occur doesn’t even bear thinking about.

Both women face many challenges and tough decisions. Decisions that need to be made in the spur of the moment but the ramifications of which will be felt for many years to come. Faith, hope and love will sustain the main characters through the most desperate of times but a mothers love for her child will always shine through. Emma makes the decision to leave Lodz with a small group for she knows to stay will spell the worst fate for her little family. They travel through the harsh Polish winter but as they do so Jacob becomes dangerously ill. The scenes on the trek were so vividly described. The cold biting air that meant every layer of clothing one possessed had to be worn. The strength required to pull the carts holding their meagre possessions. The hunger and bone-weary tiredness but yet the hope that once they reach Posen they will be able to get a train which will take them to Germany. People of German origin had looked down on the native Poles viewing them as an inferior race with little intellect but now the tables have turned and the Poles are rearing up and desperately hoping the Russians reach them quickly so they can recoup their freedom. But war is an ugly thing and as they reach the city Jacob is very ill.

Emma was an amazing mother. She kept going against a wave of obstacles with her goals planted firmly in her sight - to get her children to safety, to reunite with her husband and to survive the war. But all is not as she would have wished and Posen is no longer safe. The Germans resident in the city and the incoming refugees are ordered to evacuate. As she tried to make it to the hospital where she left Jacob to receive help she battles against a wave of people. She is under pressure, time is running out and the German soldiers are fierce in their insistence that everyone moves forward not backward. Emma is faced with the toughest decision she has ever had to make. Does she go against orders and make it to get Jacob or does she consider Sophie and get to the train that is evacuating people?

I don’t know how she made such a decision and I’m sure that although this is a work of fiction many women could possibly have been facing the same choice due to various circumstances. I don’t think it was a case of Emma choosing one child over another and she knows she will have to live with the aftermath of her decision. She has to keep faith that as she boards the train to leave that someone may have sheltered Jacob. For surely he would not have been left in the hospital all alone as the Russians drew ever closer? She’ll get Sophie to safety and come back for Jacob. After all she has told Jacob to never run away or try to find her but to stay in the same place and she will come looking for him. She clings to this belief as her story takes on several twists and turns. It was an utterly heart-breaking thing for Emma to have to do and you couldn’t even contemplate what you would do if you were in the same situation.

On the opposite side of the coin is Irena who has suffered a great loss that eats away at her daily. She has never been the same woman and although she works diligently on the children’s ward at night she goes home and cries herself to sleep. Irena is from a totally different background to Emma but their love of children is a common bond that ties them together. What was really good about this book is that a well rounded viewpoint was offered regarding both situations that develop. It made the reader stop and think and not be too judgemental. For both women make incredible sacrifices that come with so much risk and danger. It highlighted how in times of war people will do things that never thought themselves capable of. They become selfless in their actions.

I’ll admit within the first few chapters I could sense where the threads of the story were going but not the actual specific details. Subsequently, when Irena makes a quick judgement her strength of character can’t be denied. She takes in Jacob not knowing anything of his family history and not being able to communicate with him due to them speaking different languages. What she has done may seem foolhardy and rash to some and if the authorities discovered his true heritage the results do not even bear contemplation. But it shows what bravery and courage she had and Luka too. I loved that we got to see Jacob’s point of view with regard to everything he was experiencing. He feels abandoned and that his mother never loved him. He is to blame for the situation they found themselves in and for getting ill. The innocence of a four year old comes through and your heart breaks for him as it really does for everyone involved. For I believe, there was no right or wrong choice for you must do what you feel is right at that very moment. There wasn’t time to think long term only to think immediate survival is of the utmost importance.

The story developed very well in the later half of the book and the reader is constantly thinking about things and asking oneself what would you do in the same situation? Things weren’t clear cut at all and you questioned whether Jacob would ever be reunited with his family. But a lot of water flows under the bridge and I loved the exploration of the situation in Europe post war and how things didn’t go back to normal for quite some time. Does Jacob make it back to his family? But who are his family? How do experiences mould and shape us? Does unconditional love win through? How can we repair ourselves after trauma, loss and horror? To discover the answers to all these questions and many more I suggest you grab yourself a copy of The Orphan’s Mother. It’s well worth a read.

Marion Kummerow never fails to deliver, and I loved The Orphan’s Mother. I don’t think I have read a WWII book before that is told from the points of view from characters on opposing sides of the war, but it was a real eye-opener.

Emma is German and Irena is Polish and both have a huge mistrust of each other’s countries, but for the welfare of a little boy, Irena has to put all that to one side to keep him safe. I was obsessed with reading about the risks some of the community took to protect an innocent child, regardless of the danger they may have been putting themselves in.

I’m from Britain, and it hadn’t really crossed my mind that it must have been just as traumatic for those on the other side too, and in particular the children. They wouldn’t have understood why they suddenly had to up-sticks and move from probably the only homes they had ever known.

Once again, a historical fiction novel taught me something new, and hats off to the Red Cross who worked tirelessly after the war to reunite lost children with parents, some, even many years later and even after the Iron Curtain went up.

Based on true events, The Orphan’s Mother is a brilliantly told story and I would encourage anyone with an interest in WWII to grab themselves a copy right now.

I am lucky enough to be a part of Books on Tour for this book, so thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Orphan’s Mother by Marion Kummerow.

I don’t think many people can finish this book without tears in their eyes. It shows a bit of a different aspect of war, the story is concentrating not only on the loss of loved ones who have died but also the separation of loved ones with no idea if they are alive or not. Even more dramatic if it is a small child. We see a German mother trying to locate a missing child after the war to the point that it becomes an obsession that makes her ignore her older daughter and new husband.
Then we have a Polish doctor and his wife who is a nurse that have adopted the boy to keep him save. Keeping the fact that the boy is German a secret as too been able to give him as much a normal life as possible.
The trauma of the boy when about 8 years later he is to be reunited with the mother he does not remember and feels she had deserted him. We can’t have visitations to the adoptive parents due to the Russian takeover of Poland.
I don’t want to give more away because I want you to read the story which contains so much more and brings forward so many issues and feelings that people don’t realize or pay attention to but are part of every war.

A beautifully written, heartbreakingly raw story of a mothers love and a promise.

Yes it made me cry, and I think it hit home harder when I realised that it's part based on true events. The letter in the acknowledgements explains this further.

The characters are credible, the surroundings bleak and the storyline emotive.

Many thanks to Bookouture for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

“She thought he was lost forever. Now she will stop at nothing to find him”


Whether, like myself, you read it first, or you choose to wait until you have finished the story, there is a ‘Letter from Marion’ found in the final acknowledgements, which you really do need to read. It tells how this book is in part based on the true story of a child whose experiences the author found out about whilst visiting the Friedland transit Camp Museum, at the former inner-German border near Gottingen, where she had gone to gain research material for an altogether different book, Endless Ordeal; although only the general concept is factual, with everything else being fictionally woven around the basic premise of a storyline idea.

Given the many WWII stories I have read over the past months, and just when I truly thought that there couldn’t be many more unique storylines out there, a book like this comes along, with perhaps the most heart-wrenching premise of them all. What happens when a mother, fleeing from liberators who mean them nothing but harm, is forced against her will to abandon her youngest child in what was once part of their homeland, but which has now, as war is nearing its conclusion, become land not only behind enemy lines, but also behind the Iron Curtain?

…

Emma, her husband Herbert and their two young children, Sophie 7 and Jacob 4, are amongst the many thousands of Germans living alongside the predominantly Polish population, in the Lodz area of Poland. Herbert is away fighting with the German forces against the advancing Russian war machine, although there has been no news of him for some time now and Emma secretly fears the worst. Whilst the Germans consider the Poles to be their inferiors in all ways and discourage any inter-racial mixing, unless it as employer and employee, the two communities have lived relatively peacefully, side-by-side, for many years. Emma has the added advantage that as well as her native German, she can get by relatively well speaking either Polish or Russian, although the children are German through and through. The German community have heard terrible things about the treatment they can expect to receive at the hands of the victorious Russian ‘liberators’.

Nearby in Posen, Irena and her husband Luka, a nurse and doctor respectively, although working at separate hospitals, are Catholic Polish, childless, and have reasons more than most to hate the German SS. Like most of their fellow countrymen, they are convinced that Russian forces will be their salvation and are only too pleased to see the hated German troops retreating towards their own border, although they are distraught when chaos ensues and all the Polish patients are literally thrown out of the hospital, to make way for sick German citizens and injured troops.

As part of a small group, Emma decides that taking her children and making her way back into Germany, then throwing herself on the mercy of the occupying Allied troops, is a far more palatable option than being taken and abused, or even worse, tortured and killed, by the Russians. Their trek begins in the depths of winter and is fated right from the very start, with just about anything that could go wrong, doing so. Jacob is taken seriously ill with a fever and bronchitis and his condition deteriorates rapidly in the terrible weather conditions and near starvation they must endure. The trek makes it to Posen and a refugee camp, where help is forthcoming, and Emma is given permission to take Jacob to the hospital, where amid the chaos of the retreating Germans, she is forced to hand him over at the doors and places him in the care of a nurse, called Irena, who will become a pivotal person in Jacob’s life, when the Russian advance happens more quickly than anticipated and is so much more vile and evil than anyone could have imagined.

The separation from Jacob is almost more than Emma can bear, although Jacob himself has the resilience of youth on his side and after a difficult period of re-adjustment, learns to accept and thrive in his new environment. His adoptive parents do everything they can to return him to his birth mother, although after a gap of more than seven years they have all but given up hope and are convinced that they will now legitimately be able to call Jacob their son from here on out. They are therefore mortified when contact is made with them by the Red Cross, who are still attempting to reunite displaced family members from across the world. With his formative years long forgotten, and now considering himself to be more Polish than German, Jacob rails against the upheaval about to be unleashed upon him again, but to little avail. Eventually resigning himself to his fate, he aims to make both his German and Polish parents proud of him and who he has become, although it will be 1989, with the lifting of the Iron Curtain, before Jacob will be able to fully reconcile his past with his present and embrace his multi-cultural childhood.

…

If that sounds like just a bit too much information, believe me, those are only the very bare bones of a story which tugged at the heart strings, like nothing I have read for some while and which led me on an ‘armchair journey’ which was always challenging and never comfortable, which is exactly as it should have been.

Rich in both character and location detail, this well-structured, atmospheric and highly textured, multi-layered storyline, is compassionately and seamlessly narrated in alternating, well signposted chapters, by two families on separate sides of the Iron Curtain, so close and yet so far apart. The writing is evocative, poignant, fluent and well-paced, with several unexpectedly intense and emotional moments, which are perceptive, intuitive, often raw and passionate, yet profoundly touching, highlighting both the fragility and resilience of the human mind, whilst uncovering the long-term and unseen effects the trauma of grief and loss can have. The story explores the lengths a parent will go to and the sacrifices they will make, to keep their child safe from harm and the gut-wrenching feelings of failure when they are unable to protect them as they feel they should.

The characters are well developed, complex and authentic to their place in time, although that made them not always easy to relate to, or invest in. Circumstances meant that everyone was searching for a sense of belonging and closure, on what had been a tumultuous period in all their lives, which made them compelling and emotionally vulnerable, frail yet with an amazing inner strength and tenacity to rebuild their shattered hopes and dreams.

What always makes reading such a wonderful experience for me, is that with each and every new book, I am taken on a unique and individual journey, by authors who fire my imagination, stir my emotions and stimulate my senses. This story definitely had the power to evoke so many feelings, that I’m sure I won’t have felt the same way about it as the last reader, nor the next, so I can only recommend that you read The Orphan’s Mother for yourself and see where your journey leads you!

I received this ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

⚠️Trigger Warning for Storylines⚠️

( Miscarriage/ Infertility)

Emma must make the heartbreaking decision to leave the only home she’s ever known and flee to ensure the safety of her children, she’s also leaving behind her husband Herbert who’s away in the Army fighting the Russians.

How will she find him and tell him that they’ve had to flee ?.

A terrible tragedy strikes when they are well into the journey to find refuge.

Irena is a Nurse on the children’s ward of a hospital who is still coming to terms with losing her baby after a brutal attack which left her infertile.

I really felt for both women as they had to endure situations that nobody ever should.

This was was a very poignant read that made me so sad to think that real people actually lived through that and survived.