The Young Survivors By: Debra Barnes

I received The Young Survivors as an ARC ebook from Netgalley & Duckworth Books. It is written by Debra Barnes. This is her debut novel. 

The book is fiction, but inspired by her mother’s experience of losing her twin sister at the age of six as well as her parents. She was a French Jewish child in an orphanage during WWII. 

The Young Survivors is a story of the Laskowski Family. The Laskowski’s are Jewish living in France at the onset on WWII. The parents are abducted, one after the other, by the Germans.  The five children are left to fend for themselves. 

The Young Survivors is written from the narrative of three of the children alternating in chapters. The writing style is quick and easy to read being that it comes from the perspective of children. What makes this book unique is that it’s focus is on children of France who were also Jewish. It’s important to know about the many who silently fought to keep the children safe and based on that, I would recommend this book.