tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79413313991515128642024-02-07T03:37:55.792-08:00Eliza Graham book reviewsEliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-27095073116184781192009-05-19T13:35:00.000-07:002009-05-19T13:36:07.862-07:00Sunday Business Post (Ireland) (Restitution)A tale of abandonment and love amid the rubble of World War II <em>Restitution</em> tells the tale of Alix, a German aristocrat left stranded as the Soviet Red Army advance upon Germany, eager to drive the final nail into the Nazi coffin. Alix is forced to seek refuge in her former home during a snowstorm, where she is joined by her childhood sweetheart – who winds up deserting her. Stranded, Alix is left on her own in a world full of anger and hate. This is a tale which draws on the stories of the civilians who were displaced during the war, clearly portraying most German civilians as frightened, disillusioned spectators to Hitler’s game of life and death. Eliza Graham is an adroit writer; her prose is succinct yet powerful.Eliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-82562160949725779352009-03-27T13:32:00.000-07:002009-03-27T13:42:44.296-07:00The Actuary (Restitution)<strong></strong><br /><strong>The Actuary April 2009</strong><br /><strong>Recommendation of the month</strong><br /><br /><em>Restitution</em><br />Eliza Graham<br /><br />Restitution is set mainly in the Second World War and follows Alix, an aristocratic young girl, on a journey of love and betrayal. It has all you would want in a good novel, a gripping narrative and pure escapist plot. It's one of those novels you pick up and can't put down.Eliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-17987196284207365472009-03-08T14:08:00.000-07:002009-03-08T14:10:27.091-07:00Historical Novels Review<div align="center"><strong>Historical Novels Review</strong></div><div align="center"><strong>February 2009</strong></div><br />RESTITUTION<br />Eliza Graham, Macmillan New Writing, 2008, £14.99/C$24.95, 393pp, 9780230709133 <br /><br />In January 2006 Alix is tracked down by her birth son, Michael. He asks the question she has long dreaded: ‘who is my father?’ The answer is simple and yet so complicated—he was her most feared, most adored enemy. Rewind the clock to 1945, and Alix’s story begins with her flight from the Red onslaught which is brought harrowingly to life. Death and fear stalk the pages and her meeting with old sweetheart, Gregor, is fraught with mistrust and passion. Rewind to 1939, and part-Jewish Gregor has his own story to tell—again confused by betrayal and fear—as he and his mother flee from Nazi aggression and try to find a place to call home. Interspersed between Alix and Gregor’s stories are those of their parents and friends. But for Alix and Gregor, the truth behind their encounter in 1945—and the puzzles it created—will only be understood after the passage of sixty years. At the heart of Restitution is the belief that corruption, hatred and fear cannot destroy love and hope, and that acts of kindness can take place even in the most appalling conditions. It is unusual to read a book written from the German point of view, showing many everyday Germans in a favourable light. It also focuses on the harsh treatment of German women by the Soviet army, a subject that many readers may not be familiar with. For all these reasons it is well worth reading, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. -- Sara WilsonEliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-65166442407603208612008-11-20T04:01:00.001-08:002008-11-20T04:11:35.556-08:00Faringdon Folly (Restitution)<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Restitution--a new novel by Eliza Graham<br /></span><div style="text-align: left;">"People are like rivers, they have no nationality but take on the nature of the terrain they pass through. No human spirit can be confined to a single state."<br /><br />This is just one excerpt of the cleverly tailored new novel 'Restitution' by local author Eliza Graham<br /><br />'Restitution' is the story of Alix, the aristocratic daughter of a German resistance fighter, who, in the wake of World War Two, is desperate to flee her home before the Red Army comes to revenge itself on Eastern Germany. On the last night in her own home she encounters unexpected visitors. By morning one is missing and one dead. Confused and afraid Alix finally runs for her own life. Although the war has ended, the fight for survival is only just beginning for Alix, and the mystery of that terrible night takes another sixty years to unfurl.<br /><br />Although the storyline leaps back and forth through the many decades covered, this is carefully orchestrated leaving the reader enthusiastic for more. Overall, the story is written with an inherent intelligence and understanding, with unexpected surprises around every corner. The characters are three-dimensional and the storyline exudes the horrors and heroism in this tale of survival, love and betrayal.<br /><br />Eliza has been working on this, her second novel, for some time, and has visited Pomerania, as part of her research. During the course of this she has studied many memoirs written by Polish and German civilians.<br /><br />When asked what inspired Eliza to write this novel, her reply was, "A long time ago I had German friends who fled eastern Germany when the Russians came in. I'd always been intersted in that period of German history, the very end of the war and the period immediately after. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like to have grown up in a country that had been invaded from both sides and was (understandably) considered a pariah state and which had been reduced to rubble, in the case of many Germany cities. ALthough I could see why the Russians felt such hatred for the Germans, my response to Soviet treatment of German civilians was repulsion. I started wondering what it would be like to be a young girl coming of age in that period of history'.<br /><br />'Restitution' by Eliza Graham was published by Macmillan in September 2008.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div></div>Eliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-42491072655340188712008-09-30T04:34:00.000-07:002008-09-30T04:37:04.736-07:00Waterstones QuarterlyAlix seeks refuge in her deserted ancestral home and is amazed to find her childhood sweetheart, Gregor, there. Two more fugitives arrive but by dawn they are gone and Gregor gone. As the Red Army advances, Alix flees. A story of courage and betrayal during the death throes of the Third Reich.Eliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-16388276292495791332008-09-18T14:24:00.001-07:002008-09-18T14:24:51.043-07:00The Big Issue (North)<span style="font-weight: bold;">September 2008</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Restitution</span><br /><br />With Europe ravaged in the closing stages of world war two, Russia's advancing Red Army causes the civilian population of Germany to flee in terror. Alix, the aristocratic daughter of a German resistance fighter, is the sole survivor of a brutal attack and begins an incredible but heartbreaking journey.<br /><br /><br />Alex DonohueEliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-66717342149739544162008-02-29T00:23:00.000-08:002008-02-29T00:27:41.016-08:00Brighton Argus<span style="font-weight: bold;">Brighton Argus<br />Playing with the Moon<br />Eliza Graham<br />Pan Macmillan<br /><br /></span>Minna and Tom rent a cottage in a small village near Dorset, hoping the change of scene will help them deal with the recent loss of their son.<br /><br />Exploring the beach, the unearth a skeleton that belonged to an American GI posted there during the Second World War. What seems to be nothing more than a strange discovery starts having a deeper impact on Minna, as she traces the GI's history with the help of a local woman she befriends.<br /><br />The story is engaging, with time divided equally between past and present day. Although the ending won't surprise, it makes for an emotional read.Eliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-23192430396848945252008-02-06T05:52:00.000-08:002008-02-06T05:54:41.334-08:00The Irish Book Review<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">STRANGE MEETINGS</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Playing with the Moon</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Eliza Graham</span><br /></div>Autumn 2007<br /><br />Eliza Graham's first novel, Playing with the Moon, is an intricately plotted work, shifting between the present and past, and between two different narrative voices, Minna, guilt ridden over the death of her young son in a car accident and trying, not very hard, to save her two-year marriage, tells her own story. The story of Felix, short for Felicity, her childhood, the events leading up to the tragedy in 1943 and the long-term consequences of that tragedy, is told in the third person. These two narratives intersect early on through the Dorset setting itself--Felix's childhood home, Rosebank House, now a restored holiday home rented by the young couple,and through the discovery of the skeleton of a missing GI from the Second World War.<br /><br />The intersections and interweaving of past and present are carefully worked, as the details about the tragedies from which all the characters are trying to recover are slowly released. Minna and Tom's macabre discovery of the skeleton on the beach in the first chapter of the novel becomes both motif and metaphor for both narratives, which start off with a series of unknowns and connect as the characters work through loss, mourning and the possibility of survival.<br /><br />Of the two plots, the discovery of the dead GI is initially more compelling, partly because it is clear early on that it is a murder mystery and that the adult Felix knows more about it than even her childhood memories allow. The story of the skeleton, as it is unravelled, is the story of a traumatic and life-changing period in Felix's childhood and it touches on the history of the training black American soldiers for the Normandy landings,evacuation and the commandeering of a remote village by the MOD. On the other hand, Minna's growing obsession with the dead soldier seems at odds at times with her grieving and self destructive frame of mind, manifesting itself through her refusal to eat.<br /><br />While the intersections of the past and present are well paced, the plot does verge on the breathless at times,especially in the Felix narrative, which touches not only on racist attitudes and murder, but hidden identities,marriages of convenience,gay sex, blackmail,abortion and more. Ends are tied up neatly -- perhaps too neatly. But in its attempt to capture forgotten fragments of history through Felix's story and the devastating impact of the loss of a child through Minna's story,the novel is probing, sensitive and moving.Eliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-75008334883707013402007-12-14T11:46:00.000-08:002007-12-14T11:50:20.914-08:00Historical Novels ReviewPlaying with the Moon<br />Eliza Graham, Macmillan New Writing, 2007<br /><br />Their small son having been killed in a road accident, Tom and Minna Byrne rent a house in an isolated village on the Dorset coast to come to terms with their loss. Down on the beach, Tom discovers human bones half buried in the sand along with an identity tag which names them as an American GI who drowned in 1944. Up in Yorkshire, Felix, who grew up in the same village sixty years earlier, reads the account of the find in a newspaper. She travels back to the house she hasn't seen since the whole village was requisitioned by the Military for D-Day landing practices during World War II. The two women meet and gradually the story behind those events comes to light.<br /><br />This is another book where the two central characters relate their own experiences and the story alternates between the present day and 1944. Eliza Graham tells a powerful tale and her characters are well-drawn and believable. I enjoyed this book very much.<br /><br />Marilyn SherlockEliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7941331399151512864.post-51702745828891023882007-12-10T04:57:00.000-08:002008-01-05T02:33:56.386-08:00Playing with the Moon a 'Hidden Gem'<span style="font-style: italic;">Playing with the Moon</span> is one of the one hundred on the long (very long) list for World Book Day's Hidden Gems initiative.<br /><br />Readers vote on the titles to create a shortlist of ten books, which will be discussed in readi groups and libraries and generally widely promoted.Eliza Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06366249915039505394noreply@blogger.com