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A review by andrew61
Chasing the King of Hearts by Hanna Krall
4.0
This book is very short at about 160 pages and the chapters are similarly short so it reads like a page turning thriller as we follow the life of Izolda , a young woman in Warsaw at the outbreak of the war , through the period of the war . It was after I put it down the first time that I realised that in being so taken with the tale I hadn't really appreciated the horror of Izolda's experiences which had included the loss of family and friends, sexual assault , torture by a gestapo officer in prison, and transfer to Auschwitz. So I immediately read it again.
I suspect some of this experience is due to the prose style which does not dwell on the horror but as a reader we are able to bring our own empathy and understanding of what such experience will have cost the narrator. Additionally time seems irrelevant as we open as Izolda meets her husband Shayek, is quickly married and finds her family within the ghetto. Within 150 pages we move rapidly as she tries to reunite with Shayek before we find ourselves in a liberated camp mauthausen outside Vienna. If it wasn't based on a true story the style would have made this book feel slight but it is when I put it down that I was astonished at what a unique story it was told in a style which in the end added to it's impact ( I am sure that someone else can express what I mean to say here more ably).
The final pages are Izolda in her old age in Israel reflecting with her family around, a family concerned with their own immediate problems with dwarf next to those of the silent woman in their midst.
I would thoroughly recommend this book.
I suspect some of this experience is due to the prose style which does not dwell on the horror but as a reader we are able to bring our own empathy and understanding of what such experience will have cost the narrator. Additionally time seems irrelevant as we open as Izolda meets her husband Shayek, is quickly married and finds her family within the ghetto. Within 150 pages we move rapidly as she tries to reunite with Shayek before we find ourselves in a liberated camp mauthausen outside Vienna. If it wasn't based on a true story the style would have made this book feel slight but it is when I put it down that I was astonished at what a unique story it was told in a style which in the end added to it's impact ( I am sure that someone else can express what I mean to say here more ably).
The final pages are Izolda in her old age in Israel reflecting with her family around, a family concerned with their own immediate problems with dwarf next to those of the silent woman in their midst.
I would thoroughly recommend this book.