No happy ending – but love is stronger than hate, by Philippa Linton
Star of David ornament, Pixabay In the first week of 2020, I read a Young Adult novel called The Earth is Singing by Vanessa Curtis. The book is based on the author’s research into her Jewish heritage and what happened to her relatives in World War Two. It’s a vivid and compelling read, written in the first person and the present tense. The year is 1941. Hanna is a 15 year old Jewish girl living in Riga, Latvia, with her mother and indomitable Omama (grandmother). She wants to be a ballerina. Her father is missing, having been hauled off to a Soviet l abour camp. Life in Latvia has been hard enough under Soviet occupation – it becomes unimaginably worse for Latvia’s Jews as the Nazis move into Riga that summer. Chapter by chapter, the Nazis tighten their noose around the Jewish community: chapter by chapter, the cruelty and depravity get worse. The terrible significance of the book’s title is revealed near the end, and it’s ...