22 Britannia Road
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Review
An affecting story, extremely well told (The Times )
The characters are so convincing and the writing's so unshowily accomplished that it soon becomes something gripping. An admirable debut (Daily Mail )
Harrowing, terrifying, heartbreaking, incredibly moving. Prepare to be left teary-eyed more than once (Stylist )
Riveting, luminous (New York Times Book Review )
A stark and beautiful book, alive to the compromises, deceptions and passions that traumatic situations can demand from the most circumspect of people (Marie Claire )
A most accomplished first novel. Powerful story-telling and entirely convincing in its evocation of post-war England. Very good (Penelope Lively )
[A] powerful debut (Sunday Times Culture Magazine )
Keep your Kleenex handy reading 22 Britannia Road (Grazia )
Convincing and touchingly portrayed (Independent on Sunday )
A riveting historical novel, set in post-WWII England, about a Polish couple reunited after enduring - and committing - crimes of love and war (Oprah.com )
A haunting debut that eschews sensationalism and unfurls with quiet delicacy (Easy Living )
The characters are so convincing and the writing's so unshowily accomplished that it soon becomes something gripping. An admirable debut (Daily Mail )
Harrowing, terrifying, heartbreaking, incredibly moving. Prepare to be left teary-eyed more than once (Stylist )
Riveting, luminous (New York Times Book Review )
A stark and beautiful book, alive to the compromises, deceptions and passions that traumatic situations can demand from the most circumspect of people (Marie Claire )
A most accomplished first novel. Powerful story-telling and entirely convincing in its evocation of post-war England. Very good (Penelope Lively )
[A] powerful debut (Sunday Times Culture Magazine )
Keep your Kleenex handy reading 22 Britannia Road (Grazia )
Convincing and touchingly portrayed (Independent on Sunday )
A riveting historical novel, set in post-WWII England, about a Polish couple reunited after enduring - and committing - crimes of love and war (Oprah.com )
A haunting debut that eschews sensationalism and unfurls with quiet delicacy (Easy Living )
Review
An affecting story, extremely well told The Times The characters are so convincing and the writing's so unshowily accomplished that it soon becomes something gripping. An admirable debut Daily Mail Harrowing, terrifying, heartbreaking, incredibly moving. Prepare to be left teary-eyed more than once Stylist Riveting, luminous New York Times Book Review A stark and beautiful book, alive to the compromises, deceptions and passions that traumatic situations can demand from the most circumspect of people Marie Claire A most accomplished first novel. Powerful story-telling and entirely convincing in its evocation of post-war England. Very good -- Penelope Lively [A] powerful debut Sunday Times Culture Magazine Keep your Kleenex handy reading 22 Britannia Road Grazia Convincing and touchingly portrayed Independent on Sunday A riveting historical novel, set in post-WWII England, about a Polish couple reunited after enduring - and committing - crimes of love and war Oprah.com A haunting debut that eschews sensationalism and unfurls with quiet delicacy Easy Living
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Artfully told in present and past tenses, this Second World War story of the survival of a Polish family despite all odds is full of violence and sadness, grief and loss, despair and desolation, yet throughout there is hope. Silvana and Janusz both have secrets. Both young people are seared with the blood of what happened to ordinary Poles caught up in the maelstrom of German and Russian invasion. Both are traumatised by the way in which good people resort to evil when survival depends on it.
In the midst of the turmoil there is their young son, Aurek, a child who comes through impossible deprivation and sorrow, witness to horrible destruction and the worst human beings can inflict on each other, yet somehow he remains a human child with a child's natural instincts. The terrible secret at the heart of Silvana's and Aurek's story is anticipated by the clever narrative, yet is no less disturbing when revealed.
The title of the book is the ordinary address in Ipswich to which these ordinary people - made extraordinary by their experiences - come to live. The everyday humdrum details - dress, food, house and garden, shops and work, behaviour patterns - vividly illustrate the mundane lives at the end of the war. Descriptions of rationing and food shortages, the awful winter of 1947, the adaptation of Polish foreignness to the narrow ways of English neighbours, are in stark contrast to the violent unreality of war-torn Poland. The authentic authorial voice takes the reader right into the heart of post-war Britain, and then dramatically flashbacks to the grim and often gruesome events affecting Silvana and Janusz from the German invasion of Warsaw to the dislocation at the end of the war.
Amanda Hutchinson has woven a compelling tale of wartime suffering in Europe but set in the ordinary surroundings of an English country town. The main characters are strong and true and the reader, knowing both sides of their stories, waits in suspense for the denouement. Heartbreaking but hopeful, the fact that the reader knows the family survive from the outset is a relief as the unbelievably awful experiences they have to go through before they can reach safety would otherwise be unbearable. The novel also gives a great deal of insight into immigration into Britain at the end of the war, resonant all these years later, showing how little things change. Then, as now, immigrants brought with them secret histories of trauma and devastation, and the limitations of mind-set Britons who do not understand `foreigners' is given an ironic twist by the author, a blackly humorous understanding which permeates the narrative.
Second World War novels are common but this story is not: it brings the reader pleasure and pain, laughter and tears, with a heart of humanity in all its extremes, a love story with a difference and a very good read.
In the midst of the turmoil there is their young son, Aurek, a child who comes through impossible deprivation and sorrow, witness to horrible destruction and the worst human beings can inflict on each other, yet somehow he remains a human child with a child's natural instincts. The terrible secret at the heart of Silvana's and Aurek's story is anticipated by the clever narrative, yet is no less disturbing when revealed.
The title of the book is the ordinary address in Ipswich to which these ordinary people - made extraordinary by their experiences - come to live. The everyday humdrum details - dress, food, house and garden, shops and work, behaviour patterns - vividly illustrate the mundane lives at the end of the war. Descriptions of rationing and food shortages, the awful winter of 1947, the adaptation of Polish foreignness to the narrow ways of English neighbours, are in stark contrast to the violent unreality of war-torn Poland. The authentic authorial voice takes the reader right into the heart of post-war Britain, and then dramatically flashbacks to the grim and often gruesome events affecting Silvana and Janusz from the German invasion of Warsaw to the dislocation at the end of the war.
Amanda Hutchinson has woven a compelling tale of wartime suffering in Europe but set in the ordinary surroundings of an English country town. The main characters are strong and true and the reader, knowing both sides of their stories, waits in suspense for the denouement. Heartbreaking but hopeful, the fact that the reader knows the family survive from the outset is a relief as the unbelievably awful experiences they have to go through before they can reach safety would otherwise be unbearable. The novel also gives a great deal of insight into immigration into Britain at the end of the war, resonant all these years later, showing how little things change. Then, as now, immigrants brought with them secret histories of trauma and devastation, and the limitations of mind-set Britons who do not understand `foreigners' is given an ironic twist by the author, a blackly humorous understanding which permeates the narrative.
Second World War novels are common but this story is not: it brings the reader pleasure and pain, laughter and tears, with a heart of humanity in all its extremes, a love story with a difference and a very good read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this for a bookclub and enjoyed it. My worry when I saw the back was that it would be bleak and depressing and full of horrific details of wars, but it isn't. It does cover some difficult themes and ideas, but in a way that doesn't revel in how awful it is, but focusses on how people get through things.
I have to say that both Silvana's and Janusk's secrets are obvious from very early on, but in many ways this doesn't matter as it is more about the way they are learning to relate to each other while coping with their pasts.
As some of the other reviewers have said, I didn't really 'get' the Silvana character - she's not 2 dimensional, but she does lack warmth, possibly due to her upbringing, which makes her difficult to like and a bit cold at times. I also didn't like the love triangle element. But these are minor points.
This is a very enjoyable read. I'd particularly recommend it for someone who wants to read about real issues without feeling like they've been emotionally beaten by the end.
I have to say that both Silvana's and Janusk's secrets are obvious from very early on, but in many ways this doesn't matter as it is more about the way they are learning to relate to each other while coping with their pasts.
As some of the other reviewers have said, I didn't really 'get' the Silvana character - she's not 2 dimensional, but she does lack warmth, possibly due to her upbringing, which makes her difficult to like and a bit cold at times. I also didn't like the love triangle element. But these are minor points.
This is a very enjoyable read. I'd particularly recommend it for someone who wants to read about real issues without feeling like they've been emotionally beaten by the end.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Very occasionally you read a novel that completely captivates: 22 Britannia Road is such a one.
The book caught my eye and I read the epigraph "The dead have need of fairytales too" a quote from Zbigniew Herbert - intrigued, I bought it and spent the following three days totally immersed in the story of Silvana, Aurek and Janusz. At last, literary fiction that enthralls, beguiles and sweeps the reader along, page after page.
Amanda Hodgkinson writes beautiful prose - lyrical, almost poetic in places, laying bare the bones of human frailty and emotion honestly and without sentimentality. One cannot help but be drawn into the unfolding drama - the sense of the past exerting its influence in the present pervades the narrative and is accomplished by the author's masterful structuring of the novel.
A wonderful debut novel. I look forward to reading more from this talented author.
The book caught my eye and I read the epigraph "The dead have need of fairytales too" a quote from Zbigniew Herbert - intrigued, I bought it and spent the following three days totally immersed in the story of Silvana, Aurek and Janusz. At last, literary fiction that enthralls, beguiles and sweeps the reader along, page after page.
Amanda Hodgkinson writes beautiful prose - lyrical, almost poetic in places, laying bare the bones of human frailty and emotion honestly and without sentimentality. One cannot help but be drawn into the unfolding drama - the sense of the past exerting its influence in the present pervades the narrative and is accomplished by the author's masterful structuring of the novel.
A wonderful debut novel. I look forward to reading more from this talented author.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Quite a good book
I quite liked this book. I thought it was a real pageturner. I read it in two days. If you like this book, i suggest you also read The Absolutist by John Boyne, The Cocaine... Read more
Published 29 days ago by F., E., Van Rhijn
22 Britannia Rd.
A really good book. Well written and enjoyable. The story of an immigrant family and the difficulties they experience in a new country alongside the struggles they had faced in... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Avid reader
Unmemorable (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)
This was chosen for my book group and I was intrigued to read it. I had looked at it a number of times but never actually bought it. The synopsis looked interesting. Read more
Published 2 months ago by C. Rucroft
secrets and lies
a story set during and after WW2 and the secrets that two people keep. Very well written and had me turning the pages quickly, even though i had worked out one of the secrets early... Read more
Published 2 months ago by schoolescort
Average
I thought , from the reviews this would be something special, thoughtful- unfortunately it wasn't . It was pretty mundane. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ichabod
The War Within
I chose to read this book because of my Polish heritage and the many stories I heard when I was growing up of the hardships that the Poles faced during WWII. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Marion Marchetto
Touched my heart.
Another wartime story but one that touched my heart and kept me engrossed and cativated .
It is told in past and present tense and does not shy away from the horrors of... Read more
It is told in past and present tense and does not shy away from the horrors of... Read more
Published 7 months ago by BusyReader
I enjoyed
this historical and cultural journey, this was a great debut novel, and I hope the author continues to write as I look forward to reading more of her work.
Published 8 months ago by G Star
A good read
This is the story of Silvana and Janusz, and their little boy Aurek. Silvana and Janusz were separated during the war, when Janusz joined up and Silvana was left behind to fend... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Nicola
A different perspective on WWII
World War II had a massive effect on lives across the world; Silvana and Janusz, living in war zones, have been affected more than most. Read more
Published 9 months ago by M. K. Burton
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