The Rainbow by Carly Schabowski
Genre: Historical fiction, WW2
Read: 19th July 2021
Published: 28th July 2021
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
There, on the dusty floorboards, was a piece of paper, folded neatly. A newspaper article, written in German, alongside a faded picture of two men in Nazi uniforms staring at the camera. I was about to place it back in the box of forgotten things when something in the text jumped out at me. My breath caught in my chest. I know that name.
London, present day. Isla has grown up hearing her beloved grandad’s stories about his life as a child in pre-war Poland and as a young soldier bravely fighting the Germans to protect his people. So she is shocked and heartbroken to find, while collecting photos for his 95th birthday celebration, a picture of her dear grandfather wearing a Nazi uniform. Is everything she thought she knew about him a lie?
Unable to question him due to his advanced dementia, Isla wraps herself in her rainbow-coloured scarf, a memento of his from the war, and begins to hunt for the truth behind the photograph. What she uncovers is more shocking than she could have ever anticipated – a tale of childhood sweethearts torn apart by family duty, and how one young man risked his life, his love and the respect of his own people, to secretly fight for justice from inside the heart of the enemy itself…
An heartbreaking novel of love, betrayal and a secret passed down through a family. Inspired by an incredible true story. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, We Were the Lucky Ones and The Alice Network.
MY REVIEW:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Carly Schabowski's heartbreaking WW2 tale THE RAINBOW.
Having loved the author's previous book "The Watchmaker of Dachau", I was eager to delve into THE RAINBOW and while it is a heartbreaking story both in the past and present, for me it didn't quite reach that same height. But then, it was a pretty high bar to compete with, in my view. Having said that, THE RAINBOW is still an unforgettable tale that will have you reaching for the tissues and numb your senses.
The story begins with in Isla in 2015 England on a visit with her grandparents when she comes across a rainbow coloured silk scarf and an old newspaper clipping of two men, one of whom is her grandfather Tomasz Jasienski dressed in a German Nazi uniform. But this can't be right! Her granddad is Polish. He fought in the Polish army, not the Nazis. Maybe it is another Tomasz Jasienski. But the photo is clearly her granddad, of that Isla is certain. She cannot ask him as he is in the late-mid stages of dementia and while some days are lucid, many are not, and the last thing she wants to do is upset him by stirring up old memories. Then when her grandmother deflects any questions she asks, it merely arouses her curiosity.
And so begins Isla's quest for answers, for information about her grandfather's past and what really happened in that photo. All she has is the name and an address of her granddad's brother whom he has not seen or spoken to in seventy years and while they may have been estranged, Andrezj sent his brother a yearly Christmas card up until five years ago. Is he still alive? There was only one way to find out. Isla travels to Poland in search of Andrezj and the answers for which she seeks. She finds the gruff 99 year old living in a sheltered retirement home where he gives her some diaries that had been her grandfather's during the war.
Returning to England, Isla has the diaries translated from her grandfather's native Polish and through them she journeys back with Tomasz as a young boy in 1930 through to WW2, when he was forced into the German army.
The perspective then changes as we meet Tomasz in the summer of 1930 as a ten year old boy who meets a gypsy named Kapaldi living in a colourful caravan on a neighbouring farmer's land. To Tomasz, Kapaldi was a magical man who could make it rain and create rainbows. The first time Tomasz ever saw Kapaldi, he was dancing naked with nothing but a rainbow scarf around his neck. The same rainbow scarf Isla found in her grandfather's attic. She remembers the tales she was told as a girl about a magical man and rainbows that she thought were just fairy tales. When one day, Tomasz comes to see Kapaldi he finds some of the local lads beating him and taunting him so he jumps on the farmer Kowalski's tractor and makes way towards the young thugs hurting his friend. The lads scarpered in fear and Kapaldi thanked young Tomasz for saving his life. He promised him that he now owes him a debt and that one day he will save Tomasz's life too.
It was the summer of 1930 that Tomasz also met the young Zofia at a carnival where he won her a little wooden heart. Zofia kept the little heart as a reminder of happier times when in 1939 Poland was invaded by the Germans and life became even harder for the Polish. The couple are now 19 and in declaring their love, Tomasz tells Zofia he plans to ask her father permission to marry her and together they plan their future together. But then Tomasz is taken by the Nazis and forced to fight alongside them for the Reich. It is during a harrowing time in which they were to round up a group of partisans working against them that Tomasz tossed a grenade and killed them. The sight of the bodies with their innards spilling out etched into his memory forever. He is whisked away to the office of Captain Liebenez, who had seconded him to the German army in the first place, and awarded Tomasz the Iron Cross for his bravery for which the two men were photographed and immortalised forever in a newspaper clipping found wrapped in a silk scarf some seventy years later.
As a reward for his bravery and loyalty to the Reich, Tomasz was given the easier task of translator away from the frontline of battle, although he was often ridiculed by his peers and those above his rank as well as the public. Why? Because he was Polish. It was often heard said "Stupid Pole" and even the boarding house in which Liebenez installed him, the caretaker landlady said to him "Poles not welcome here" and he had to find somewhere else to eat, which left him wandering the unfamiliar streets in which he often found himself lost. On these occasions he found himself conjuring up the image of Kapaldi who then helped him find his way back. But he had seemed to so real, was it just his imagination or had he truly seen Kapaldi? They hadn't crossed paths in many years but somehow Tomasz always knew Kapaldi was there watching over him.
And then when a tragic even occurs that numbs Tomasz even further from which he feels he will never recover, he feels that Liebenez has been playing games with him all along and doesn't have his best interests at heart at all. Then Liebenez is promoted to Major whilst unbeknownst to Tomasz, his beloved Zofia is unwittingly caught up in the Major's games as well. Tomasz is now a broken man and on the last page of his diaries he writes..."What have I done?"
Intrigued even further by the ambiguity of her grandfather's final words on those pages, Isla travels back to Poland in the hope of uncovering the meaning behind those words. What had happened for her grandfather to have berated himself with those four words? This journey takes her even further into Poland back to where her grandfather grew up and it is there she meets Zofia, her grandfather's first love. And the truth of what really happened beyond those final words is finally revealed...as are the secrets of the past.
Based on a true story that was seven years in the making, THE RAINBOW is as emotional as it is heartbreaking. The plight in which young Polish boys faced at being forced into the German army is a little known fact that I had no idea about. The Nazis were cruel to almost everyone, even amongst themselves at times, in their quest for a pure Aryan race and their belief that they could do anything they wanted to anyone they chose. And the higher their rank the more entitled they were. This is seen in Major Liebenez and the games he played with Tomasz and Sofia. He seemed to be their friend but to him they were just a means to an end. I loathed him.
Tomasz, whilst the hero of the story, is not your regular hero. And he certainly doesn't consider himself to be one. He is an ordinary man with flaws. He lives in fear, he's made decisions that could put his life in jeopardy, choices that could be wrong and while there is nothing extraordinary about him, what he has been through is unthinkable. And as an old man approaching 95, Isla begins to wonder considering what he has lived through...is his dementia a curse or a blessing?
As for Isla herself. We don't know much about her. We know she is a lawyer but that in itself doesn't define her. What is important is her granddad and the truth behind the photo she found in the attic. Unlike most heroines of a story, particularly those who are lawyers, she doesn't focus on her life or career but on emotions and what it must have felt like to live through all that her grandfather and later Zofia lived through. The war was another time, another era, something that is beyond the realms of today's generation and yet Isla found herself immersed within the past and the emotional journey she took to uncover the secrets that had been lost to time.
THE RAINBOW is a beautiful story and heartbreaking at the same time that the author drew references from a true story that belongs to her own family. It is a bittersweet tale that the reader will find it hard not to shed tears. For me, it was the threat of losing those memories forever locked inside a mind that was slowly disappearing. Dementia is a cruel and unprejudiced disease that steals memories from the living to remain locked in the past unless they are detailed before they are lost forever. I didn't find Tomasz to be in the late stages of dementia as he was still lucid enough to regale Isla with the final chapter of his story and a late stage sufferer would barely able to talk let alone recall sporadic memories. I saw him as late-mid stage as it's the final stages that are the most heartbreaking of all.
There was one aspect I didn't really warm to in the story and one which I felt no connection to. For me, it didn't belong there in the way it was portrayed but would have been better served in another connection to the story. I won't say in what capacity so as not to spoil it.
A poignant read that carries through the generations, THE RAINBOW is a tale of family, love and lost secrets. Perfect for fans of historical WW2 fiction.
I would like to thank #CarlySchabowski, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheRainbow in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Carly’s debut novel, 'The Ringmaster’s Daughter', was published by Bookouture in July 2020, while her second novel, 'The Watchmaker of Dachau' will be published in January 2021. These texts are both true, epic, moving historical novels centred around survival, human suffering, and the finding of love within the backdrop of the desperate and uncertain times of 1940s Europe.
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