They Went Left by Monica Hesse (2020) tells the story of Zofia Lederman after she has been released from a concentration camp and starts the quest for her missing brother Abek while seeking to return home to Poland after the end of World War II.
I do not usually read this genre of novels, but this book was highly recommended to me and I would return the favor to someone else.
It has interested many readers around the world for treating an often-rare moment of history portrayed in novels, what happens after the war is over and every survivor is bound home? How do these survivors continue to live with the scars left by conflict and torture? The psychological aspect in this book is a heavy burden for the main character as she tries to remember what happened to her family and when was the last time she saw them. The narration does a stupendous job in describing a world that was shattered: damaged railways that made traveling cumbersome, the leftovers of discrimination of the Nazi regime in society and the intention of reconstruction at the displaced-persons camps, where a big part of the story takes place.
“What did they mean, it was over? What was over? I was miles from home, and I didn’t own so much as my own shoes. How was any of this over?”
As we reflect on the 2020 pandemic, this book really delves into what was it like to live in difficult times after the war and all the healing that was waiting to happen. It makes you reflect on many moments in time that have proven a challenge to societies around the world.
The most devastating scenes are the ones that depict former prisoners trying to contact their relatives and missing people and the endless letters they had to write to find them and have a chance at a glimpse of hope. I found interesting that the novel also mentions the constant effort and disappointment of the workers at different organizations trying to help make those contacts and reuniting kinfolk and friends.
It is a beautiful written story that tries to uncover how to re-build a life after such hardship and trauma, and how new families can be formed from tragedy and need. Zofia's testimony about one of the most horrible times in history sheds some light into the extraordinary capacity of human beings to survive.
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