‘The best historical fiction book I’ve read this year! I was awake until the early morning hours finishing it, because I could not put it down! The story was heartbreaking… It held me riveted from the first page to the last.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 starsWhen Karen Cartwright is unexpectedly called home to nurse her ailing father, she goes with a heavy heart. The house she grew up in feels haunted … haunted by the memory of her father’s closely guarded secrets about her beautiful mother Elizabeth’s tragic death years before.As she packs up the house, Karen discovers an old photograph and a stranger’s tattered love letter to her mother postmarked from Germany after the war.During her life, Karen struggled to understand her shy, fearful mother, but now she is realising there was so much more to Elizabeth than she knew. For one thing, her name wasn’t even Elizabeth, and her harrowing story begins long before Karen was born.It’s 1941 in Nazi-occupied Berlin, and a young Jewish woman called Liese is being forced to wear a yellow star…A beautiful and gripping wartime story about family secrets and impossible choices in the face of terrible hardship. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, We Were the Lucky Ones and The Alice Network.What readers are saying about Catherine Hokin:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘What an amazing read, well written emotional and very compelling… I was totally absorbed in the story and I would love to give it 10 stars. One of my best reads this year. I can’t begin to say how much I loved this book, I couldn’t put it down, absolutely brilliant.’ Goodreads reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This is a wonderfully heart-breaking story of life, love and above all survival. A truly emotional book and very hard to put down. 5*.’ Goodreads reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘The more I read of this book, the more I had to read! What a fantastic story this is touching just about every emotion there is.’ Goodreads reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This story just swept me away… I was left speechless… just wow!!… I do recommend a box of tissues… This book will have you turning the pages.’ Red Headed Book Lady blog⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘This bittersweet story will grab you from the first page and will keep you up late at night reading chapter after chapter. The characters will stay with you long after you finish the last page. In a bookstore full of World War II novels, this one is a must-read!’ Goodreads reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Contained within a richly detailed narrative was a story that spoke of prevalence of the human spirit, both resilient and beatific, bowed but never broken by the unfathomable horrors of war. Captivating. Sobering. Unflinching. 5+ stars.’ Goodreads reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘What an extraordinary, engaging story. It moved me to undiscovered heights of understanding and compassion. A novel that will stay in my mind forever.’ Goodreads reviewer
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What Only We Know by Catherine Hokin is a marvellous heart-breaking dual timeline novel that will consume you as you ‘live’ through the action.
The novel is set in Germany, mainly Berlin, in 1936-1947, and in England in 1971-1990. Chapters alternate, as do the voices through whom the story is told.
The horrors of life for Jewish people in Nazi Germany builds from ripples in 1936 to full blown horrors. Cruelty knows no bounds. One scene in particular affected me deeply as it played out before my eyes.
World War II effected lives and continued to effect lives for years later. A defining moment firmly grounded a character, stuck forever, suspended in a moment in time. No amount of love or care could move the character on.
The lives of the parents have a ripple effect on their children. Ghosts of the past hover in the present.
Catherine Hokin has constructed a marvellous novel with realistic, believable characters who were likable. My heart went out to lives damaged by experiences of war.
I found it hard to witness those who performed horrendous acts of terror and cruelty live perfectly normal lives after the war.
The novel is about learning to understand how experiences shape us and direct our steps. It is about learning to love and realising why certain actions were done.
Catherine Hokin is a new author to me and I want to read everything she has ever written! What Only We Know consumed me as I read. I feel bereft now it is ended.
What only we know is a beautifully written historical fiction novel about more than just the Holocaust. Unlike many other Holocaust novels, the horrors endured lay just below the surface; hinted at but only mildly explored. Rather the story delves deeper into the emotional and mental turmoil wrecked on its survivors. It is evident that those who survived the Holocaust were often haunted by more than their physical scars.
The book is written in parallel timelines. The story of two women intertwine and make for a truly heartbreaking read. One women lives through the Holocaust only to succumb to her survivors guilt while the other desperately searches for the answers to why.
What only we know is truly a book of love, forgiveness, hope and overcoming the past. It is a tragically beautiful novel that draws you in and leaves you captivated.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Favorite Quotes:
Michael had a girlfriend, a cigarette-smoking redhead he slobbered over like she was carved out of candy.
I have one more piece of advice, if you can bear to hear it. When you dig up the past, do it gently. With a care for the living.
There wasn’t a sound from the adjoining room, or from the bed where Lottie lay spreadeagled like a starfish. There wasn’t a sound from the streets outside. The world was as silent as if it had stopped turning.
‘Everyone in the camp is dying. If you’re lucky, you get to do it under your own steam.’ The owner of the voice was too thin to claim a discernible age or a gender; only the filthy dress marked her out as a woman. ‘Come in – don’t be shy. Press yourself close and choose your poison: TB, cholera, dysentery – we’ve got the whole set.’
It was as if she had wandered into Hell while its demons were sated and napping after an orgy of violence. She felt the stillness like a pause: it was filled with tension, time suspended while the next madness took shape.
We were brought together by a place. Now we need different places. To find our stories in. To be remembered in.
My Review:
This was my first experience in reading this author and I was quickly absorbed and duly impressed with this epic saga. Catherine Hokin unwinds quite a shrewdly paced and riveting tale of a curiously enticing mystery bound in tragedy that spanned several timelines and countries with a host of maddeningly annoying yet compelling characters and several intriguing yet devastating storylines that squeezed my cold heart and maintained my rapt attention. Her thoughtful writing was breathtakingly descriptive and conjured sharp visuals and keenly observant insights that hit all the feels with her deeply perceptive and sneakily emotive arrangements of words.
I was turned inside out yet completely invested and unwilling to put my Kindle down while compelled to read late into the night until my eyes went on strike and closed on their own. All the dispirited threads were expertly and cunningly woven together in a manner I never saw coming and ended with a highly satisfying conclusion that left me feeling surprisingly buoyant despite all the prior turmoil. Ms. Hokin has a new fangirl.
This, like many other WWII books, is a story of the resilience of people and the triumph of the human spirit over pain, bitterness and the dark horrors of war.
A parallel story to two women – modern day Karen trying to uncover the secrets of her mothers past and Liese who lived through terrifying reality of WWII in Berlin. The author moves seamlessly between the two times and stories.
The narrative, the characters and a most extraordinary story that kept me engaged from start to finish.
Can one ever outlive their past?
This is two stories in one. It is the story of Liese Elfman and her family in Germany leading up to and during the Nazi rise to power under Hitler. The Elfman’s were into the fashion business and even though they were Jewish they somehow felt they would be okay with the Nazi’s because they were famous in the fashion world. They refused to head the warning signs until it was too late and they lost everything. Leise was only a young woman but she then had to look after her parents who had no idea how to live under Nazi rule. Michael her friend helped them until one day when the soldiers came and they were trapped.
The second story is that of Karen Cartwright. When Karen was eleven her mother died and although she is now a successful architect she never got over the death of her mother. When her father falls ill she comes home to care for him. While going through some papers she finds a photo and a letter. She is determined to find out what it means and her mother’s history. Her father refuses to talk of her mother before they were married and she wants to know more.
She finds that sometimes it is harder to learn about the past than to let it be. It does however bring her and her father closer together once she learns the truth.
The book is about love, death, the horrible things the Nazi’s did to the Jewish people during that time period and how many of them never got over the cruelty inflicted on them and were unable to live a productive life afterwards. Survivor guilt, the unfairness of the trials for the Nazi criminals, and the still felt anti semantic feeling in Germany even after the war was lost. The loss of loved ones, sometimes whole families was such that many could not bear it.
This book is also about love, forgiveness and letting go of the past and living and loving again.
I couldn’t put this book down once I got into it, although it did start off a bit slow in spots. It was a good read although a sad and tragic one. I would recommend it.
Thanks to Catherine Hokin, Bookouture, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy in return for an honest review.
Captivating. Compelling. Creative. Crushing. Unforgettable. This one will stay with me for a very long time. The author has created an amazing story that takes place in the heart of WWII, but with equally important events in the shadow of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The balancing act between the two historical eras is masterful. The author also captures the humanity of survivors as vividly as the inhumanity of the Nazis. And the insight from Michael (you’ll know when you read it) is something I see rarely addressed – extremely well-done, and at the top of my list for the year. For a full review, please visit my blog at Fireflies and Free Kicks. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a digital ARC of this book.
The more I read of this book, the more I had to read! Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres and this did not disappoint. This story is done in a then and now format with the story beginning in Berlin in September 1936. Margarethe and Paul Elfmann ,along with their 16-year-old daughter Liese, run a top fashion house making apparel for wealthy women. The Elfmanns are Jewish and as changes begin to happen, the Elfmanns choose to ignore the changes until they lose their business, their home and their money. They are forced to live in a ghetto with Liese looking after them until that night when they hear footsteps in the hallway and a knock on the door with Liese’s parents being taken away. Fast forward to Aldershot, England September 1971 where 11-year-old Karen is having a hard time accepting the drowning death of her mother, beginning a new school and living with her cold military father. When Karen is 16, she decides to look through her mother’s jewelry box and discovers a passport with her mother’s picture and a different name. She also finds another document that she cannot figure out. When she confronts her father, he refuses to answer her questions which further divides them. The story goes back and forth from Berlin to Aldershot and ends in Berlin September 2001. What a fantastic story this is touching just about every emotion there is. Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of this heart-wrenching story in exchange for an honest review. This is a very well-written and well-researched bo