‘The Seamstress Of Warsaw’ by Rebecca Mascull

Synopsis

1940

London

A man learns a shocking truth about his past.

Warsaw

A mother writes a diary as the ghetto walls go up.

From the bombed streets of London, to occupied Warsaw, to the Polish forests bristling with partisans, will their paths cross? Will their pasts be reconciled? And will they survive the deadly assaults on their freedom and their lives?

My Review

Anybody who knows me well, knows that not only am I a book geek, but I am also a huge history nerd.  I love historical fiction with a particular focus on the 20^th Century and the Second World War.  So you can imagine why the synopsis of ‘The Seamstress Of Warsaw’ screamed ‘read me’ at me.  I couldn’t wait to start reading and so without further ado, I grabbed my Kindle, grabbed a cup of tea and settled down for an interesting read.  I did enjoy reading ‘The Seamstress Of Warsaw’ but more about that in a bit.

I started reading ‘The Seamstress Of Warsaw’ with mixed feelings.  Having studied A Level Modern History, I knew a fair bit about the despicable treatment of the Jewish People in Germany and Poland during the Second World War.  I had read a fair bit about the Ghettoes for my studies so I had an idea of how the Ghetto system worked and the horrendous conditions within such a system.  Once I got into the story, that was it and I found it extremely difficult to put the book to one side for any length of time.  I became totally wrapped up in the story that I lost all track of time and just how quickly I was getting through the story.  I kept everything crossed that the two main characters were reunited and that their story had as happy an ending as you could possibly get in a story such as this.  I found ‘The Seamstress Of Warsaw’ to be an gripping and emotional read, which kept my attention throughout.

‘The Seamstress Of Warsaw’ is extremely well written.  Rebecca has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with.  Rebecca certainly knows how to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into the story.  Rebecca has clearly done a heck of a lot of research into Wartime Britain and Poland and this shines through in the quality of her writing.  As I mentioned above, I already knew a bit about the Ghettos but I learnt even more from Rebecca’s story.  She added detail to what I already knew and gave me a real understanding of what it must have been like to have lived in the Ghettos.  I felt as though I was part of the story, which is all thanks to Rebecca’s very vivid and realistic storytelling.

In short and overall I did enjoy reading ‘The Seamstress Of Warsaw’ and I would recommend it to other readers.  I will certainly be reading more of Rebecca’s work in the future.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.