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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Chasing the King of Hearts by Hanna Krall translated by Philip Boehm #WITmonth

3/8/2022

4 Comments

 
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When word reaches the Warsaw ghetto of the terrible consequences Nazis have in mind for Jews, Izolda feels a great responsibility to save her family. And if she can’t protect her parents and in-laws, she is determined that she and her husband will live.

Changing her name, her hair, her religion, she sets about finding hiding places, travelling in and out of the ghetto via the sewers. She faces rape, imprisonment, forced labour, torture and a spell in a concentration camp, surviving on her wits and her love. But is that enough and is it worth it? As an old woman with no language in common with her Israeli granddaughters, she’s not sure.
My first read for Women in Translation Month 2022 is based on a true story of a remarkable woman on a mission to avoid the Holocaust. The straightforward simplistic style of the narrative somehow serves to underline the horror.

Although I’ve read a good deal of fiction about the Holocaust – The Memory Monster being the most recent – I don’t think I’ve previously read a novel that focuses on the experience of Polish Jews. I was surprised to learn that, unlike the Jews of Vienna with whom Izolda her travels to Auschwitz, the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto were aware of their fate, some committing suicide to avoid it.
I have no idea what this image represents but the prompt for the 99-word story is somewhere remote. I’m still feeling quite remote from my identity as healthy but I won’t bore you with that this week. I imagine the concentration camps were quite remote, both geographically and conceptually. Can I create a story around that? Mmm, looks like I went for something more contemporary:
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Britain’s brilliant solution to the refugee problem
 
It took patience, imagination and dogged determination, but we achieved our objective by playing on your fears. We showed you oversubscribed schools and overloaded hospitals: you could see they’d collapse if we took in more of them. Of course we felt for the families in the crowded dinghies but we didn’t make them cast their fortunes to the waves. If it weren’t for the traffickers they’d never leave their homes. Problems need solutions, that’s why we were elected: Rwanda’s climate and culture are closer to their own. How can it be racist when our skin’s as black as theirs?
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
4 Comments
Nancy Brady link
12/8/2022 07:34:01 pm

What a powerful story, Anne.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
14/8/2022 12:12:47 pm

Thanks, glad it worked for you.

Reply
D. Avery link
13/8/2022 08:40:41 pm

Hello Anne! That's a brilliantly scathing flash. Yep, play on people's fears, keep "them" remote, distant, so empathy doesn't get in the way of the solutions...
Yikes.
Regarding the challenge photo: That's the GPS screen in the rental car Charli had for our adventures. All of a sudden all details of roads, terrain, etc disappeared. We were in unmapped territory. Or something. I thought it was funny and took a picture. We were very pleased all week to be where we were even if we didn't always know where that was. You should have been there.
Get better, get healthy.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
14/8/2022 12:18:06 pm

i see. I'm never as remote but mine sometimes doesn't recognise the minor roads but the screen stays green.

Glad you had a good time. Getting lost can be fun.

I still have some health issues but hope to get out on the moors if it cools enough before the heather dies.

Reply



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    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
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    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

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    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

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