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• This is a wonderful book, I felt like I was in a movie theatre, just sitting back and enjoying the story. I kept imagining a very young Meryl Streep as Silvania. This book is set in 1946 in England but has flashbacks to Poland during WWII. The flashbacks were handled flawlessly so you always knew which character and what place you were going back to. The book opens with Janusz, a Polish immigrant to England trying to immerse himself in English culture and customs. He desparately wanted to fit in and not be the guy with Polish accent. He had been separated from his long ago sweetheart and wife, Slivania and his young son, Aurek since 1937. Pre-war Poland was not so bad. There were many movie theatres and Silvania was proud of the beautiful uniform that she wore as an usherette at the Kine cinema. She was very glad to escape her depressing home to marry Janusz. In 1937, the grass was green and full, the trees blossuming with hope. Janusz had decided to not follow his father's advice to be a lawyer but to do what he loved, to work with mechanical things instead. The future was full with promise. Then the war came to Poland. The Germans invaded Warsaw and entirely changed the lives of Janusz, Silvania and little Aurek. As the story unwound, events were the starting points of long held and scary secrets. Some secrets were not so obvious and I had literally gasped out loud. Living in the forests outside Warsaw for Silvania and Aurek seemed so real that I often forgot that that I was reading a book! What they had to do to survive, how they had to completely depend on each other. They seemed like one unit. Janusz also had some life experiences that became memories and memories that became secrets. With this book, you realize how much wartime experience can take over the souls of people and utterly change their inner life. Secrets from Silvana held both by Janusz and those terrible life changing memories held by Silvana from her husband take on a life of their own. This book is a must read. The author, Amanda Hodkinson is very talented and is a joy to read. All the major and minor characters were vividly fleshed out and the scenes in Poland and England were rich with visual images. You will forget that you are reading and will feel that you are in England and Poland. The Polish customs, food and farms were beautifully interwoven in the story. By the end of the book or maybe before, you will be thinking of what war does to people and if and how those experiences can be overcome. I received this book as a part of the Amazon Vine Program but my review is based entirely my own thoughts.

  5.00 out of 5

  Carolee888

• This stunning novel focuses on a Polish couple, Silvana and Janusz and their son Aurek, who are separated for six years during World War II. They are finally reunited after not hearing from each other during that entire time. Their new home, at 22 Britannia Road in Ipswich England, offers them both a place of safety, but also is a place where each must come to terms with their own war time experiences, deciding what, when and how much to share with the other. The young son's story is especially poignant as he has no memory of his father (who left when he was only about a year old), has been raised solely by his mother and regards all men as "the enemy."Hodgkinson gives us a masterful story as she weaves chapters from the present with flashbacks to the past, giving us the same glimpses that the couple allows themselves and sometimes each other. It is a story of loss, of fear, of courage, of incredible bravery, mother love, and serendipity. Ancillary characters help flesh out the deep anxieties of all three of the major players.Highlighting an aspect of war that is not often detailed---the plight of refugees having to adjust to a new country and new language at the same time they are readjusting to each other and their marriage--this is a story that is sure to please. For anyone looking for another view of the fallout of war, this is a not to be missed book. It certainly will be included in my top of the year list.

  5.00 out of 5

  tututhefirst

• 22 Britannia Road tells the story of one family torn apart by war trying to rebuild itself after the war is over. Silvana and Janusz fell in love in rural Poland before World War II. They married and had a son, but soon after the war breaks out, it tears them apart. Six years later, Silvana, Janusz and their son Aurek are reunited in England. Will they be able to heal the wounds the war has inflicted on their lives and souls, or will it be too much for them to overcome? I thought 22 Britannia Road was an excellent novel. The story is very powerful, and explores the trauma and tragedy of the war on everyday people and then how difficult it is to leave those memories behind in the wake of the conflict. The author used an effect technique to explore both sides of her story--she alternated chapters in the novel's present (post war England) with flashback chapters to the main characters experiences during the war. This allowed the reader to understand the deeper motivation for the characters actions. I also thought the language of the novel--which was sparse but powerful, added something to the overall story telling. Although parts of this novel are very sad, I do feel like there was an underlying message of hope. Fans of literary fiction or historical fiction set in the World War II period should check out this excellent novel.

  5.00 out of 5

  bachaney

• A WWII novel with a difference.I have read a number of novels set around the time of WWII and enjoyed that 22 Britannia Road varied from these in two respects. Firstly, we knew that the couple were reunited right at the beginning and the body of the book covered the problems of this reunion, with flashbacks to their individual war-time experiences. Secondly, the protagonists were Poles, not British, escaping from the awful realities of their homeland, which gave a refreshing new slant to the book.Silvana meets Janusz as a young woman in Poland and Aurek, their son, is born soon after their marriage. Although life is frugal, it is happy, until the approach of the German army to Berlin prompts Janusz to sign up as a soldier. Eventually it becomes impossible for Silvana to remain in the city and she leaves with Aurek, little knowing what horrors await her.The present tense is used for current time, their struggles to make a life together after 6 years of horrors and desperate lack of basic necessities. Two other strands, in past tense, follow their individual experiences during this time and reveal the secrets that they subsequently hide from each other in their new life together. The strands join as the secrets start to reveal themselves and the problems that these secrets cause loom larger.It is a thought provoking book, as we are made to realise that the miracle of a reunion, after all the deaths of WWII, is really just the beginning of the story. Having changed so much, it is not easy for any of them to revert to 'normal' life again, least of all in a foreign country where they are viewed with suspicion.I particularly liked Aurek who, at the age of 6 and after so much depriavtion, is jealous of his mother's relationship with Janusz and names him 'enemy'.This was my first experience of reading an e book on my new reader. It was well written and full of feeling and harsh experiences for all three parties, but I often found that I wasn't quite sure who was speaking when we switched from one chapter to the next. I do not know if this would have been the same problem in hard copy.Certainly well worth a read, recommended.

  4.50 out of 5

  DubaiReader

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