The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy (Read 11/12/19 to 11/17/19)

This is my second Quarterly Book Exchange book.  It is set in Poland in the last year of World War II.  Two jewish children are sent into the Bialowieza Forest by their Father and Stepmother.  They are told to hide their identities and take the names Hansel and Gretel.  They find an old woman, Magda, in a hut on the outskirts of the village Piaski, the village calls her a witch.  This takes what you think you know about Hansel and Gretel, and weaves a magical and tragic tale about what could have been the real story behind the fairy tale.

I really enjoyed this book, it took the horrors of Nazi occupation of Poland and combined them with the fantasy of a Fairy Tale, to create surreal world, that was probably exactly how it felt to survivors.  I'm not going to lie, this had some very graphic movements, but I think that was Murphy's attempt to stay true to the graphic nature of that time period, it was an ugly brutal period in human history.  I love the writing style and the way she kept elements of the fairy tale in the story of these fugitive children.  It was beautifully written and heartbreaking at time.