World War II novels are hard to get through, and this was no exception. Yet the writing of fictional characters and reimagined circumstances built upon the stones of the true happenings in Mauthausen - as far as they are known - kept me coming back to find out where it all led.

Hannelore Falk's story, and those whose stories I'm not often brave enough to approach, these as told by Ellie Midwood reminded me: those victims had lives to live (and unnaturally leave). I at the very least must by reading acknowledge and try to grasp the weight of that terror. While the book is a very good one, with noble purpose at its core, all the stars in this venue are for the purpose of wholeheartedly recommending the reading of it, to consider as the narrative unfolds the survival, sacrifice, and imposition of horrific wrongs at the hands of unthinkable evils which need to be remembered, and from which we must ever be on guard.

She's written more, such as The Violinist of Auschwitz.

*A sincere thank you to Ellie Midwood, Bookouture, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*

A fantastic read set during World War 2. I found this book very hard to put down once I started to read it.

Rated 4.5⭐️

The Child Who Lived is about love, strength, and friendship. This book focuses not really on the child who lived but on Lore and her WW2 story. It starts off with Lore being brought to divorce court by her husband because she was unfaithful. Being unfaithful wasn't her choice, but it was a choice she made to survive. The judge becomes interested in her story, and the novel becomes to take shape as Lore tells her past and her misfortune during WW2. The ending is warm and heart touching, I even shed a tear or 2.

I really enjoyed this book. This is my first novel by Ellie Midwood, and I enjoyed her writing style. Thank you to Netgalley, Ellie Midwood, and Bookouture for the Free Ebook, this review is 100% my own.

There are so many takes when it comes to reading historical fiction. In this WWII story, a group of women prisoners in Mauthausen concentration camp had very specific duties. One of the prisoners, Lore, falls in love with another prisoner named Wolf and she becomes pregnant. Having a child in these conditions would be rather tragic indeed.

Lore’s fellow women prisoners help her while she is carrying the baby, all while Wolf strives to find escape for them in order to give them all a fighting chance. Considering that the camp they are in is clearly a death camp, time is truly of the essence if any of them are going to survive.

What an amazing story of survival. I could’t imagine having a baby under those circumstances, especially when food was hard to come by, as well as the brutally harsh treatment they all had to endure. But this latest book by Ellie Midwood was a powerful story of survival, hope and love. It was also a story of friendship when considering the other prisoners alongside Lore. Notably, this story was inspired from true events, and that made it all that more impactful.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

TRIGGER WARNING: Nazi brutality, rape and sexual slavery
1946, a man applies for divorce from his adulterous wife. But the judge listens to the wife's story as she explains her wartime experience in various prison camps...
The Child Who Lived is a highly emotional historical novel set during WW2.
 Lore puts her life in danger to help her Jewish neighbour and other Jews but is caught. Her kindly Nazi employer organises a good lawyer who gets her sent to a concentration camp instead of being executed. But can she survive physically and emotionally?
The camp experience is terrible but the strength of Lore's personality as well as her fellow inmates is truly inspiring. The events depicted in the book are heartbreaking and tragic but the characters provide bravery and love against all odds. Unpleasant and underrepresented topics such as sexual slavery and medical experimentation are not shied away from.
The majority of the book is written in chronological order to show Lore's experience in the camps. However, some chapters refer back to the divorce hearing with the judge. The second half of the book contains the love story between Lore and Wolf which results in her pregnancy. The tension mounts as the pregnancy progresses and the danger increases.
It is not an exaggeration to say that I practically devoured this book; I couldn't put it down and finished it in just a few hours. I was totally invested in Lore's story from the very start and wanted her to find happiness. There was a definite tear in my eye as this book ended.
The Child Who Lived is a beautiful, terrible, tragic and inspiring book about the power of love in the face of hate and war.

This is my first Ellie Midwood book and definitely not my last!

Based on a true story this WW2 Historical Fiction book introduces you to Lore, a political prisoner charged with treason who is sent first to Ravensbruck and then to Mauthausen where she finds herself forced to work within a brothel ran by the Nazi's, forced to do the unthinkable and survive in a world full of horror and what unfolds is a heartbreaking, inspirational, courageous, gut wrenching story.

This book is so beautifully written, it broke my heart and yet, made me smile at the same time. A story within a story full of friendships forged, love and above all hope.

A highly engaging, incredibly compelling read that has left me itching to read more of Ellie's books.

First Ravensbruck then Mauthausen camp, Hannelore Stroman finds herself imprisoned by the Nazi regime. Falling in love with Wolf, Hannelore finds herself with a reason to live, including the child she and Wolf have together. Affecting and poignant, well written, worth the read.

I found it quiet captivating from the moment I started reading it, and even tough I put it down for some time it was easy to pick it back up from where I had stopped reading.

Gripping in a heartbreaking way, the strength of Lore makes you want to hold onto her and save her the entire way. A true testament of resilience and bravery in times of deep tyranny and war, the words will leave you with a sense of hope long after the book is closed.

The Child Who Lived by Ellie Norwood

My favourite author for books of this genre as she has such a way of coming up with stories , the people , places and historical fact.
Set in Mauthausen and Ravensbruck concentration camps , and you know you are in for a story that will contain human brutality , heart break , and also acts of bravery and human spirit and this book has it in bucket loads.
Austrian Lord gets caught and is sent to Ravensbruck as a political prisoner before being transferred to Mauthausen where she is made to work in a brothel ran by the nazis. We meet other girls who are being forced to do the same.
The book is Based in a true story which makes it even more poignant , and I found myself holding my breadth hoping for a good ending.
You have to read this book.

LOVED this! Every so often I take a break from my normal genre of psychological thrillers so I decided to give this title a try...and I'm glad I did! Relatable characters and engaging story line that doesn't drag along. Not often that I think of book characters the minute that I wake up but I found myself thinking of them every time I wasn't actually able to sit down and read.

Based on real events that do have to be told lest we forget. Lore the lead character has a spirit and resilience to be admired. So much horror and brutality which makes the book hard to finish. Exceptional research obviously has been done for this tale and most readers will have a lump in their throats at least once during the telling.

Thank you Bookouture for inviting me to be part of the Books on Tour for “The Child Who Lived”. Ellie Midwood wrote a gut wrenching novel that had me turning the pages so fast to see what would happen
The story starts with Lore telling about her time during the war. The author did not hold back describing the brutalities of war. But it also had resilience and hope. This is another excellent book with twists and turns that you don't expect.
I won't give away the ending but it is everything I had hoped for. Many thanks to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Based on true historical events, The Child Who Lived by Ellie Midwood is a very visceral story. Set in Ravensbruck and Mauthausen concentration camps, this book tells a story that will tug your heart and leave you pondering at the depths of atrocities that were committed during World War Two. This book totally made me cry, but I am also amazed at the human spirit.

Lore, an Austrian, does not intentionally join any anti-Nazi movement. She gets involved anyhow because she works at the SS. She gets caught and is sent to Ravensbruck as a political prisoner. From there, she is sent to Mauthausen, where she is in a brothel house run by the Nazis. Rest is what the story is about, and I do not reveal more.

This book is a very hard one to read, and I could not put it down. I just had to read and finish it. I have read Ellie Midwood's books before, and she is an exceptional author. Her books make you feel, think, and have these myriad emotions that take time to settle down. How many Lore's, Tillie's, and Anika's paid the price in these concentration camps? We probably will never know, and stories like these need to be in the open. I have read so many books of this time period, but the pandora's box still keeps throwing surprises.

Thank you, Bookouture, for this book.

CW: Sexual slavery, Nazi atrocities, concentration camps.

A story of survival in WWII. The book is set after the war in a courtroom where a husband is asking for a divorce from his wife based on infidelity. The judge becomes interested in the woman’s story and wants to hear it. This is a unique setup to the meaning story and I loved it. At times the book returns to the courtroom as a reminder this story happened in the past.

I absolutely loved this book. It shows the strength of women and men under unbelievable situations. Once I started reading this book I could not put it down so I finished it in a few hours. I was lost in the story and inspired by the strength of people.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The Child Who Lived introduces us to a side of Concentration camps that is rarely written about, sex slavery.

It's very much a heavy book, so I read it along with some rom-com, especially before bed. It is however a book everyone who does not get triggered by SA should try reading. It's well-written and the story is gripping.

Wow is all I can say, The Child Who Lived is such an incredible and powerful book from Ellie Midwood. It’s easily the best story that she has written since The Violinist of Auschwitz and The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz which both blew me away at the time of reading. At just over 280 pages long it’s certainly not epic in terms of its length but yet it packs such a punch. I flew through this in one sitting as I was completely sucked in right from the prologue and what an impact it makes even right from that starting point.

I could tell that Ellie Midwood poured her everything into the writing of this spectacular story based on true events and people and all the injustice and rage that she felt just radiated from the pages and these feelings soon consumed me too. Not one word was wasted throughout the writing of this story, each so carefully chosen to fuel the plot and drive it on. I thought everything was so expertly plotted and developed and the pace was pure perfection.There were never any lulls or filler in chapters and that’s the way a good book should be.

Yes, the blurb suggests the story is all about a baby born in the most harrowing of circumstances but there is so much more to the book than that and in fact that really only occupies the last quarter or so of the story. Erich Brodbeck is a judge presiding over numerous divorce cases following the conclusion of World War Two. As he sits in his courtroom listening to Heinrich Stroman citing his reasons for divorcing his wife Lore he soon comes to realise that this is not the usual case of infidelity with Heinrich claiming Lore was unfaithful all the years of the war.

In fact, just scratch beneath the surface that little bit more and a remarkable, inspiring and courageous story is there waiting to be told and Erich can’t help but get Lore to share what she has been through. From this point on the story deftly moves back and forth between the courtroom and Lore’s experiences of war which soon turn out to be horrifying and beyond all imagination. The perfect balance was struck between the courtroom scenes and actually reading of all that Lore went through and at times I even forgot that Erich was listening to Lore as I was consumed by everything that she was recounting.

It all began in 1938 in Vienna where Lore lives with her husband Heinrich where they both work for a bank. Heinrich is a demanding bully and a coward and you can see that Lore longs to be away from him. Her job at the bank is soon gone and she finds herself working at the Central Agency for Jewish Immigration where she is a typist issuing immigration forms. A job which she uses to her advantage and here is where we see her spirit, grit and determination quickly come to the fore. Who would notice an extra form or two or a stamp where there should not be one? She does her best for the countless number of Jews needing to leaving Austria as Hitler’s insane policies start to come to the fore. But someone betrays her and execution is waiting but she is spared and interned as a political prisoner. Her first camp being Ravensbruck which specifically housed women. Supposedly, anyone who passed through the gates of this camp was being sent for re-education but what awaited them there was beyond imagination.

Again as with Ellie Midwood’s previous books no details were spared and it makes for gruesome reading what Lore and so many others endured. There are so many hard hitting scenes of brutality and women being violated and just when you think it couldn’t possibly get any worse you turn the page and more horror awaits you.In a strange way I am glad such detail was included because it only made me care for Lore even more and it allowed the author to highlight her sense of strength. Lore was mighty, fierce and resilient and she would need all these qualities in order to try and make it out alive. Lore represents so many women of the time. She was a woman of immense integrity and a heroine of the highest order. She was someone with ‘a sharp sense of justice, a rebel with a moral compass always pointing in the right direction in spite of the circumstances’. The Germans tried endlessly to break her and she reached rock bottom more than once through the brutality and torture inflicted upon her but she had hope and love deep in her heart that she would make it through.

The story ramped up another gear when Lore was given the opportunity along with several other women to transfer to Mauthausen camp in Austria. A year of working there with good working conditions and a sufficient supply of food would be provided and once the time was up a release was promised but that was not to be the case. When a camp is described as category three you know it is hell on earth and that’s what Mauthausen proved to be. At this point, I briefly stopped reading just to look up some information about the camp and the information I found and the images I saw were awful. Here Lore has to try and forget who she was in order to survive as a special barracks was set up for her and the other women where inmates could come if given a pass and here is where the sexual slavery aspect of the story came into play. I was totally taken aback and horrified by what I was reading.

Wolf, a former journalist and a kind and considerate inmate who strikes up a connection with Lore, describes the brothel like this.’It’s the house of the unfortunate who have been punished by the Nazi’s for sins other nations would consider heroism’. There could have not been a more accurate description for it. The instinct for survival kicks in with Lore and she becomes a leader for the women. She was loyal to her friends and the hell she endures only served to make her stronger especially when she falls pregnant but how can she have a baby in such circumstances? ’We ought to stick it out till the end just to annoy them with being alive.’ ‘So the child who wasn’t meant to survive would become a child who lived’. And so reveals the connection to the title but to discover what happens I urge you to read this outstanding book.

When a very brief prologue has you sitting up and paying attention with your interest piqued you know you are going to be in for a brilliant read and The Child Who Lived quickly turned into a book that I couldn’t leave out of my hands. In the end notes Ellie mentions how authors of historical fiction can bring to light forgotten pieces of history and in this case shed light on the concentration camps from a new angle and she certainly did this with such terrific and intense writing never at all shying away from the gruesome details depicting things in a real and honest way. I had a vague notion that the Mauthausen camp existed but certainly had no idea that women were made to engage in sexual slavery in the manner in which they were at the camp. Just when you think you can’t be shocked anymore by what you read about World War Two here I was reading in horror and shock and everything really hit home at the brutality, aggression, abuse and injustice so many people suffered.

Lore’s story should come with a warning that you will not get any work done once you start reading so do yourself a favour and set time aside to give it the full attention it deserves. As for that twist at the end well I wish I had paid more attention to a certain something at the beginning but when it was revealed I thought yes this is what I have been looking for in my most recent reads. A story that has that twist that you don’t see coming but god it leaves you with the biggest smile on your face and Ellie certainly pulled it off. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending The Child Who Lived. It’s a triumph of a read, brilliantly plotted with excellent character development and packed full of raw emotions all which will leave a lasting impression.

They aren't just barrack mates, they are blood sisters

The story starts in 1946 with the court processing civilian affair of divorce between Heinrich Stroman & Lore Stroman
Here then you'll be brought to the years at the camp in 1942 - 1945 following heartbreaking journey of Lore.
Lore worked at Agency for Jewish immigration, but she then was sent for her punishment to concentration camp at Ravensbrűck after caught smuggling papers for the Jews. She also experienced another horror of being a freudenhaus for the SS when she was sent to Mauthausen. At Mauthausen, Lore found great friendship and sisterhood with other women - I love the bonding among these women and how brave they were despite the circumstances.

This book brings up subject of sexual slavery in Nazi concentration camp, also the escape of the Soviet inmates from Mauthausen.
I love how historical fiction helps keeping history and survivor's memories alive.

High praise to this book 👏. If you love historical fiction, this one is not to be missed.

Ellie Midwood has written another highly recommended, emotional historical novel The Child Who Lived is a story of loss, hope, survival, joy, friendship and love… love in a place you never thought it could exist. This WW2 historical fiction seamlessly moves between the dual timelines with great characters and a perfect ending.

I would like to thank Bookouture, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this complimentary copy for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Lore and Wolf are prisoners of war and they must fight to the end to save there child. I felt so much emotion in this book from devastation to hate, sadness, desperation but also I could feel that there was a lot of hope. The story will definitely open your eyes to the horrors that people in the war camps faced and I feel that the way they were treated was inhumane but I loved the sense of commradide that Lore presented. A thoughtful and well written and researched book that I devoured.