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Friday, August 8, 2008

Trudy's Promise by Marcia Preston

Trudy's Promise by Marcia Preston
Booklist Review: An act of desperation divides a mother and her child. Only an act of faith can reunite them. Trudy Hulst has no idea if her husband survived his attempted escape past the newly constructed Berlin Wall. But she knows too well the consequences of his actions. Now branded the wife of a defector, she faces a life in prison. With no real choice, she is forced to follow, praying she can find a way to claim their child once she's in West Berlin. Trudy survives a harrowing break for freedom...only to learn her husband was shot during his escape. Alone, she wanders the wall like a ghost, living for brief glimpses of her son, now out of reach behind barbed wire and armed soldiers. Desperate to regain her child, Trudy begins a journey that leads her to America, where she continues an odyssey of hope to find her son.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved this book. It was well written. Moves along at a good pace. Makes you want to know what happens next. The subject matter is great for use in schools and interesting to everyone else too. It has history, drama, intrigue, suspense and more. It is a must read.

Anonymous said...

This book read like a Young Adult Novel. The historical content was interesting pertaining to the wall in Berlin, but I had no problem putting the book down. I don't feel the caliber of writing is of the same level of some of the other books on the selection list.

Anonymous said...

from Pat Bringar:
This novel has been well received by Amazon readers; however, there is an absence of legitimate critical commentary. Perhaps, it was because I could not seem to get beyond Rolf, in the opening pages of the novel, swimming under water with "wire cutters clamped to his teeth," because I then continued to find the story contrived, refueled often with more contrivance, particularly toward the end of the story when Trudy refuses to sign a document that would ensure reunion with her baby whom she had not seen for a year, and this out of a pride and courage the reader is expected to admire. The wall of terror that divided East and West Berlin, the Kennedy era, and the "tearing down of the wall" during the Reagan administration bring a sense of reality and history in this otherwise well-told tale.
However, it reads more like a young adult novel that would, therefore, have greater appeal for junior high/high school students.