Affinity Konar wrote a beautiful story haunted by history with insight that destroyed my heart as a mother. Mischling by Affinity Konar, is a story that will linger in your heart, your thoughts and dreams and leave you with a desire that history is never to be repeated.
The story is about twin sisters trying to stay alive while being ‘experiments’ at Auschwitz. Pear is in charge of: the sad, the good, the past. Stasha must care for: the funny, the future, the bad. You fall in love with both sisters, weep at their grief, proud of their strength and while you assume the worst, you pray for the best despite knowing the “Angel of Death” at Auschwitz is no angel.
Here’s one of the reviews listed on the blurb: “One of the most harrowing, powerful, and imaginative books of the year” (Anthony Doerr) about twin sisters fighting to survive the evils of World War II.
My thoughts:
It took me longer to read than I’d expected and that was primarily due to how much it hurt my heart to read. From the moment you start the story you are immersed within the twins POV, you see things from their perspective, you experience their pain and confusion. What was hard was knowing – as the reader – exactly what was happening to them even though they didn’t. I had to read in bits. Books like this make me cry, crying creates headaches, headaches stop me from writing…so bits was all I could handle for this story because I was always crying.
As a mother, I imagined these to be my children.
As a mother, I knew I couldn’t even feel 1/2 the pain and agony the parents within those camps had to have felt.
As a mother, I couldn’t read this as a fictional account. Even though it is fiction, there is so much truth within these pages that I had to be careful immersing myself within the story.
Affinity Konar wrote a beautiful story haunted by history with insight that destroyed my heart as a mother.
Do I recommend this book? Absolutely.
