Monica Hesse

A tour de force historical mystery from Monica Hesse, the bestselling and award-winning author of Girl in the Blue Coat. Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else--her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja--they went left. Zofia's last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, and into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once. But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. How can she find one boy in a sea of the missing? In the rubble of a broken continent, Zofia must delve into a mystery whose answers could break her--or help her rebuild her world.

They Went Left

Melissa Palmer

Excellent historical fiction that picks up the story of a young woman after she is freed from the concentration camps. Her main purpose in life is to find her younger brother. Moving and powerfully written, this book is recommended for high school readers and adults alike.

McKenzie McWhorter

This was an incredibly beautiful and heavy story and I think the ending was exactly what it needed to be and just perfect. Highly recommend.

Cynthi

The beginning started off promising but as much as read it didn't really have a little nag at my brain that made me wanna keep reading. It's not horrible I was able to get through the book and some parts were good but in other parts I had to keep telling myself to not get distracted.

illa

A bittersweet, hopeful story with a twist at the end leaving me in tears, this book wrenched my soul and proceeded to stomp on it. I loved the depictions of Zofia's trauma, acknowledging that while the war is over, her grief is far from gone. The depiction of the other characters was amazing; they were all complex and interesting. Overall, this book was absolutely wonderful and reflects oncoping after a great tragedy.

Hannah Williams

This was a really interesting read. I think it could have been sped up a little but other than really enjoyed it! The ending was really bittersweet but a good one. I though it was cool that the “titles” of the chapters was the alphabet instead of numbers since the alphabet has a lot of meaning in this book. 

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

The last time I saw Abek...
"Zofia!" he cried. "Where are they taking you?"
"I don't know," I mouthed. I could already feel tears pooling in my eyes but bit them back so as not to waste time. I reached for his hand through the fence, his little-boy fist that I could still cup my palm around.
"Abek to Zofia, " I told him.
"A to Z," he said back.
"When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. And we will be whole, and everything will be find. I promise I will find you."

Outstanding, suspense-filled historical fiction set in August 1945 right after the liberation of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Poland and centered on 18 year-old Zofia Lederman's quest to find her little brother, Abek, who she hasn't seen in years but who she is committed to finding no matter the cost. Zofia's story focuses on the aftermath of leaving the camps, how teenagers and the rare children who survived the Holocaust fought against incredible odds to keep hope alive and find their families and friends, how liberation and survival did nothing to stem the ongoing indignities and prejudices they faced when they tried to return to their cities, neighborhoods, and homes.

Each step in Zofia's journey is a mental and physical battle. She has experienced such tortuous brutality during the war that her mind has rebelled and locked away her most painful memories to protect her sanity. Each time she is overtaken and confronted by a hopeful dream or horrific memory, she moves closer to remembering the last time she saw Abek and perhaps figuring out where he could be:

 "This is the version I have dreams of sometimes. Clear as day, sharp as a needle, so I can see every hair on his head. And when I dream this scene, Abek nods at my promise. Like he trusts me, like he believes me. For a moment, I feel at peace."

Zofia's post-war world is excruciating and fraught with ghosts of the dead and terrors held at bay by sheer force of will. Each person she meets, from the handsome Russian soldier who rescues her from the barracks at the camp and who wants more from her than she is willing to give to the nuns running an orphanage for Jewish refugee children, presents a huge risk forcing her to decide whether to trust her fragile grip on reality and believe that she is on the right path to finding Abek:

"But then something changes. Then dream-Abek's face twists, and his words come out pained: "Something happened," this Abek says. "But we don't have to talk about it yet."
 
Paced like a thriller, They Went Left, which received a Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor for YA from the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) in 2021, is highly recommended for mature readers grades 10 and up. I listened to the first half of the novel and my commute flew by! By the weekend, I knew I would need to have the print version so I could read the second half as quickly as I could, tense with hope against hope myself to the very end.

The New York Times bestselling, Sydney Taylor Honor winning, critically acclaimed tour de force historical mystery from Monica Hesse, author of Girl in the Blue Coat Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal, her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else—her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja—they went left. Zofia's last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, and into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once. But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. After all, how can she find one boy in a sea of the missing? In the rubble of a broken continent, Zofia must delve into a mystery whose answers could break her—or help her rebuild her world.

Musfirah

Tale of a sister and brother is always a heart touching one . The narration is Little bit slow but the emotion carries you away to complete this book .

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher and fantastic flying book club! Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: They Went Left

Author: Monica Hesse

Book Series: Standalone

Diversity: Jewish main characters!

Rating: 5/5

Publication Date: April 7, 2020

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 384

Recommended Age: 16+ (romance, violence, death, TW for Holocaust mentioning)

Synopsis: Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else--her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja--they went left.

Zofia's last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, and into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once.

But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. How can she find one boy in a sea of the missing? In the rubble of a broken continent, Zofia must delve into a mystery whose answers could break her--or help her rebuild her world.

Review: This book is equal parts heartbreaking and equal parts inspiring. The character development is amazing, I absolutely loved our main character and I loved how she wasn't cookie cutter, she had flaws as well. I loved the world building, it's hard to realize how devastating a place can be after a war. I am fortunate enough to not live with destruction like that and to see life go on as normal. I think books like this are very important because we only learn about the during and we don't get to hear a lot about the after.

However, I did think the pacing was hit or miss. Sometimes we were sailing through and others we were at a standstill. 

Verdict: a marvelous book! Definitely recommend!

Leelynn Brady

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Fantastic Flying Book Club, Netgalley, and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

My eyes are still the color of empty.

I feel like this line was where I knew that things were going to be different. Different from other WWII novels that I read, I mean. A lot of the WWII books out there take place in the midst of the war, in Europe, sometime before the war was over and things were getting bad. Honestly I feel like WWII should have its own genre because there are so. many. books. that deal with that topic, from the eyes of someone in Europe as someone affected by the war but not one of the main players in the war. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s been done. a. lot.

So imagine my surprise when I saw that this novel was more on the aftermath of the war, after Germany surrendered and Europe is trying to somehow get back to how things were. Well they will never be how things were, but try to somehow heal from all of the pain, death, and destruction that they had to endure during both wars. Yes, I say both wars because I’m pretty sure things weren’t at a copacetic level completely after WWI.

All our main character Zofia wants to do is to find her brother Abek since they were separated three years ago in Birkenau. He is the only family he would have left because everyone else was sent to the gas chambers. They made a promise to one another when they were separated, that no matter what, they would find each other again, and now that the war is considered over and Zofia is finally able to go back to her home, she’s hoping that he will have made it back home too.

“Abek to Zofia,” I told him. “A to Z,” he said back. “When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. And we will be whole, and everything will be fine. I promise I will find you.”

But a lot can happen in three years, especially during times of war. Will Zofia be able to find her brother again? Is it even possible to find one person amidst thousands of displaced people trying to reunite their families? Is he even still alive? It has been three years since she last saw him and knew of his wellbeing. Who’s to say that something didn’t happen to him in between that time?

This story was one that was filled with a character trying to figure out how she can deal with the traumas that she endured for three years alone, in a world where all she wants to do is find the one family member she has left. The reader is pulled on an emotional roller coaster in a world that not many people ever talk about in literature, and it gives a new perspective on what actually happens after the “liberation” of those that were under the control of the Nazi regime for years. It shows that someone can’t just say the war is “over” without putting things into place, and that putting things into place to make lives better than their current circumstances is not as simple as saying “you’re free to go.”

Krystal Campbell 

Heartbreaking! There are many stories told about WWII and the concentration camps. But this was my first story that talks about the aftermath. What happens when they are liberated? How do they all find their families again? This book shocked me. It broke my heart and made tears fall when I least expected. It will pick you up, take you on a wild ride and then spit you out feeling mortified at the struggles on millions of people. It’s eye opening, raw and beautifully written. All the stars!

They Went Left

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