Journey To The Past

The Curious Kidnapping Of Nora W by Cate Green is a marvellous novel that drew me in from the start.

It is a book about survival as Nora is just eighteen days away from being the world’s oldest women at 122 years and 165 days in 2018 as the novel opens. Nora is a survivor. She was born in Lodz into a Jewish family. She survived the Nazi occupation. She has known love, pain and hard work. She wants to celebrate her special day in her unique way and not be bamboozled into an organized party.

This is a story about a mother’s love. We see the unique mother-daughter bond between several characters, and we witness the huge pain of loss.

Generations separate Nora and her carer but they are united by their shared experiences of war, love and loss.