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May 27, 2016jenniferrabbit rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
This is a reissue of a book written in 1992. Rebecca's Polish grandma didn’t remember her early life - the first thing she remembers is being pregnant in a US shelter for concentration camp rescuees. Using documents her grandmother had not shared with the family, the savvy of a young newspaper editor and historical societies in the US, Rebecca sets out for Poland to discover her origins. There she and another young woman hired to be her guide and translator brave hostile townsmen to find a sympathetic priest and an old nobleman who know the terrible truth. Briar Rose blends a YA coming-of-age plot with tragic, riveting depiction of Nazi horrors. I don’t feel this combination is totally successful. There is a great gap between the depiction of Rebecca’s modern-day family squabbles and budding romance, and the relentless evil of the holocaust. The writing and characterization are fine, but there is something amiss with the pacing or perhaps the transition back home after the trip ends. It’s a short book and well worth the read, but on balance not quite satisfactory.