A review by thebooktrail88
The Last Embrace by Pam Jenoff
4.0
16-year-old refugee Addie escapes Fascist Italy to live in Atlantic City with her aunt and uncle. But her journey is not over yet..
It’s only right that this story is from the mouth of Addie, a small Italian Jewish girl. For this is her story. Her story of being a war refugee, an Italian stranger in an American city. A female war correspondent and someone with secrets from the past. As she moves from Italy to the USA, her hopes and fears are poignantly portrayed and this is an emotional story on many levels.
I’ve loved Pam Jenoff’s books for some time but this one was a nice surprise as it was totally not the book I expected. The theme of war and of being Jewish during the war really gave me an insight into what it must have been like for a young child and as she tried to fit in with her life in america, I felt both admiration and sadness for her fate. Her story was quite a complex one but the way Pam writes, it’s never hard to follow and the emotional angle continues all the way through. Having Addie as the narrator was a great idea as who can tell her story better than her? I felt as if I was with her, reading her mind, thoughts and emotions and really wanted her to end up with one man (no spoilers) but was shocked by the end! Addie must be the example of so many children taken from their families and sent to safety and the scenes on the harbour were particularly poignant to me.
I really love Pam’s books as she always shows the human side, the vulnerable side to people during the war and I always feel humbled by getting to know her characters.
It’s only right that this story is from the mouth of Addie, a small Italian Jewish girl. For this is her story. Her story of being a war refugee, an Italian stranger in an American city. A female war correspondent and someone with secrets from the past. As she moves from Italy to the USA, her hopes and fears are poignantly portrayed and this is an emotional story on many levels.
I’ve loved Pam Jenoff’s books for some time but this one was a nice surprise as it was totally not the book I expected. The theme of war and of being Jewish during the war really gave me an insight into what it must have been like for a young child and as she tried to fit in with her life in america, I felt both admiration and sadness for her fate. Her story was quite a complex one but the way Pam writes, it’s never hard to follow and the emotional angle continues all the way through. Having Addie as the narrator was a great idea as who can tell her story better than her? I felt as if I was with her, reading her mind, thoughts and emotions and really wanted her to end up with one man (no spoilers) but was shocked by the end! Addie must be the example of so many children taken from their families and sent to safety and the scenes on the harbour were particularly poignant to me.
I really love Pam’s books as she always shows the human side, the vulnerable side to people during the war and I always feel humbled by getting to know her characters.