Review: The Masterpiece

Title: The Masterpiece 

Author: Belinda Alexandra

Publisher: 4th September 2024 by HarperCollins Australia

Pages: 419 pages

Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Historical Fiction | Post WWII

Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

Paris 1946: A young woman, Eve Archer, has come to Paris to find Serge Lavertu, the father she never knew. But before Eve can find the courage to tell him who she is, Serge is arrested, accused of selling a French national treasure to Hitler during the war and murdering the original owner. Could Serge truly be guilty of treason or has he been set up?

Only one person knows the truth that might save Serge from execution: Kristina Belova, a beautiful Russian artist recently returned from a concentration camp and suffering amnesia. As Eve desperately prompts Kristina to recall what happened during the war, she uncovers a passionate love triangle and a secret about her own heritage that will change Eve's view of life forever.

My Thoughts

Eve Archer, has come to Paris to find the father she never knew only to discover he is accused of not only selling art to Hitler but murdering the original owners in order to do so. In Eve’s effort to prove her father’s innocence, she must not only take on Parisian society but also uncover the world of art pre and post war and an artist talented enough to defy them all. A betrayal of the highest order and the race again time to deliver justice. 

'It's a masterpiece, I said.

'It certainly deserves to be considered as one,' sighed Madame Bonne. 'Unfortunately, "masterpiece" is a title that seems reserved for works by male painters.’

With so many WWII stories out there for readers, it is essential that there is a key component that sets it apart from others. The focus and detail of the art world certainly ticks that criteria with the overall focus mainly on art from the 1920s through to the end of WWII. It gets especially engaging with art forgeries and resistance fighters in Paris during the Nazi invasion which makes for fascinating reading. Belinda has really done her homework in that department and it’s fascinating. Her attention to detail and accuracy is remarkable as the story delves into everything from aspiring artists pre world war, espionage and resistance during the occupation and then life and rebuilding post war, Belinda has done an amazing job in weaving storyline’s, plots and characters into a highly engaging story. It’s complex, it’s intriguing that all comes to a riveting and satisfying conclusion. 

‘It was then that she decided she would give each forgery a ‘time bomb'. She would make a tiny mark - a personal signature of her own - on all the forgeries so they could be identified as fake after the war.’

I have loved all Belinda’s books and she just seems to get better and better with each one. The Masterpiece being such a well rounded novel with love and loyalty, secrets and spies and a story that will sit with you long after turning the final page. I highly recommend this to not only historical fiction lovers but anyone who wants to get lost in a great story. 

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Tolstoy Estate

Title: The Tolstoy Estate

Author: Steven Conte

Publisher: 2nd September 2020 by HarperCollins Publishers Australia

Pages: 304 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction, WWII

My Rating: 3.5 cups

Synopsis:

From the winner of the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award, Steven Conte, comes a powerful, densely rich and deeply affecting novel of love, war and literature

In the first year of the doomed German invasion of Russia in WWII, a German military doctor, Paul Bauer, is assigned to establish a field hospital at Yasnaya Polyana - the former grand estate of Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of the classic War and Peace. There he encounters a hostile aristocratic Russian woman, Katerina Trubetzkaya, a writer who has been left in charge of the estate. But even as a tentative friendship develops between them, Bauer's hostile and arrogant commanding officer, Julius Metz, becomes erratic and unhinged as the war turns against the Germans. Over the course of six weeks, in the terrible winter of 1941, everything starts to unravel...

From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author, Steven Conte, The Tolstoy Estate is ambitious, accomplished and astonishingly good: an engrossing, intense and compelling exploration of the horror and brutality of conflict, and the moral, emotional, physical and intellectual limits that people reach in war time. It is also a poignant, bittersweet love story - and, most movingly, a novel that explores the notion that literature can still be a potent force for good in our world.

My Thoughts

I was instantly attracted to this book for its stunning cover, it being historical fiction and the incorporation of renown literature ie. Tolstoy. This is a very ambitious undertaking and the author does an admirable job in delivering the many finer details of a side of war not often portrayed. Seen through the eyes of a moral forty year old German doctor involved in a very immoral situation, this book is compelling in its exploration of the brutality of war in the harsh Russian winter. 

 “Are you a good man, Paul Bauer?” she said to him as soon as he sat down again. “Is that why you’re here?” He glanced at her sideways to see if she was mocking him. “Because I must say I like you better as a saviour of innocent civilians than as a servant of the German war machine.”  “The men I operate on are people too, you know.” “Just not innocent.”

Conte covers a six week period when the German army occupies the former residence of author Leo Tolsoy. There are many layers to this book. Firstly there is the confronting descriptions of being part of a field hospital and the detailed accounts of the injuries and many deaths. There is also a strong sense of time and place - Russia in winter - the arctic cold is very much a character in itself for this story. Then there is what the author terms his ‘dark version of M.A.S.H’ with the relationships and banter amongst the German officers. There is the romance (not overt) through a love of literature and the incorporation of themes from Tolstoys, ‘War and Peace’ between the good doctor and the Russian woman left in charge of the estate. Overall, this is a detailed and precise focus on one point in time and the lasting impact war can ravage on both person and place. 

‘Six weeks we’ve been here - the same amount of time as Napoleon held Moscow.” “I suppose I should be grateful you haven’t followed his example and burnt the place down.” “Yet,” he warned.’

Interspersed throughout the war narrative, are letters written much later by the survivors, which assists the reader in understanding how this impacted on their lives after this six week period. This book is brutally honest and confronting. It is full of horrors yet moments of love (human) and reverence (literature) for what people cling to as an anchor to see them through such times. Somehow Conte weaves it all together for a complete exploration of German and Soviets during WWII and the physical, social, emotional and intellectual strains during a dark period in history. 

‘War and Peace also had the odd effect of restoring my faith in doing good in the world; because if as Tolstoy argued, we are all specks in a vast world-historical drama, even those of us pretending to be in charge, it followed that everyone’s actions were at least potentially equal, and that a humble person sometimes influences events more profoundly than did generals, emperors and tsars.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Confession with Blue Horses

Title: Confession with Blue Horses

Author: Sophie Hardach

Publisher: 13th June 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers Australia/Head of Zeus

Pages: 352 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: post WW2, Berlin wall

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

Tobi and Ella's childhood in East Berlin is shrouded in mystery. Now adults living in London, their past in full of unanswered questions. Both remember their family's daring and terrifying attempt to escape, which ended in tragedy; but the fall-out from that single event remains elusive. Where did their parents disappear to, and why? What happened to Heiko, their little brother? And was there ever a painting of three blue horses?

In contemporary Germany, Aaron works for the archive, making his way through old files, piecing together the tragic history of thousands of families. But one file in particular catches his eye; and soon unravelling the secrets at its heart becomes an obsession.

When Ella is left a stash of notebooks by her mother, and she and Tobi embark on a search that will take them back to Berlin, her fate clashes with Aaron's, and together they piece together the details of Ella's past... and a family destroyed.

Devastating and beautifully written, funny and life-affirming, Confession with Blue Horses explores intimate family life and its strength in the most difficult of circumstances.

My Thoughts

‘She thought what a relief it would be to make a big bonfire and burn all this paper. Reading her file destroyed the past and poisoned the present. It was the Stasi’s language that did this. It distorted reality as she remembered it and covered it in dirt until she herself felt dirtied.’

I am of an age to remember East and West Germany in the Olympic Games and the stories of people trying to flee and cross over from one to the other. I remember the momentous occasion that was the fall of the Berlin Wall. From all of my reading, not often have I come across fictional stories that deal with this time. ‘Confession with Blue Horses’ is a highly engaging story set in different time periods, of one such family and the reasons and consequences - short and long term - of their life in the East and then later. 

It was eye opening to read of the experiences of living in a country where you felt that your every move was being watched. That seemingly those closest to you could, knowingly or otherwise, turn traitor and betray you. Whilst the Valentin family had a fairly reasonable standard of living, it was interesting to learn of how the stifling restrictions of the government impinged upon the three generations and how each dealt with it. 

Interspersed throughout is a later timeline of when the children, now adults, are living in London. How the daughter, Ella, is still drawn to the events of childhood and returns to Berlin to haplessly search the archives of the old GDR to look for any clues or answers to the events that had unfolded for her family. It is here that the book truly shines as the research undertaken brings to light many issues, including how the East German government removed children from families who did not support the party line. 

I was fully engaged with the heartbreaking story presented by Sophie. She genuinely captures multiple viewpoints and captures the voices from children to grandparents throughout this experience. Her writing is so insightful as to present the facts in such a way that you truly question and wonder how differing reactions could be to such a monumental, life changing occurrence. 

If you enjoy good historical fiction and desire a window into the life of East Berliners before and after the fall of the wall, you will surely appreciate everything that is, ‘Confession with Blue Horses’. 

‘All their sacrifices would be worth it in the end. Were they, Mama? Was it all worth it in the end?’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.