Jozef Beker was born Szyja Alter in 1905 to a Polish Jewish family,comprising brothers,Aron and Morduch,and mother and widow, Tumera.Mary Hawash was born after 1914 in Alexandria to a Coptic family.Her mother,Zakia, was treated poorly by her inlaws and left destitute when she became widowed.She struggled to make ends meet.Mary had 2 siblings, Alice and Zaki.Mary was sent to the French school L'Orphelinat de la Misericode run by nuns.Mary took up sewing and embroidery to help with the family finances and also became an accomplished nurse at the L'Hopital Europeen d'Alexandrie.Szyja was scholarly,he loved learning,especially languages and so he became a teacher.He met and married Rozia Frajdenreich in 1924 and they had 2 children: son Arjusz "Arja" and daughter Marysia.Skierniewice is a city in central Poland,situated between Łódź and Warsaw.During WWII,the Beker family split, Rozia and Marysia would stay at Skierniewice,and Szyja and Arja would go to Warsaw to continue his education.Both father and son then went to Grodno and met up with Morduch in 1939.The Russians invaded Grodno in late September and Szyja knew he had to work for the Soviets in order to survive so he left his son behind with his brother.Szyja then changed his name to Jozef to appear as an ordinary Pole.He then arrived at northern Russia at the Arkhangelsk Oblast,and laboured in the woods in the harsh winter with meagre food and supplies and overcrowding.He miraculously reunited with his maternal cousin,only to be told that Warsaw was destroyed,and there was nothing and no one left.Then he went to Tashkent,Uzbekistan.Jozef escaped Russia by enlisting in the Polish II Corps.He deployed to the Mediterranean Theatre and he met Mary when he was seeking treatment at the hospital where she worked.They were engaged in 1946 and by 1948 they married and settled in Harlesden,England.They had 2 children,Margarita and Henry.They were happily married until Jozef's death in 1960.Jozef remained silent about his past and suffered nightmares.He continued on with the business of living,manufacturing belts.Decades later,Mary and their children went to Poland to seek answers about Jozef's life.

Okay - it’s Saturday night and I have escaped to my bed with dog, tea, Dairy Milk and this book. I only have about 40 pages to go. A perfect hour ahead!

I have absolutely loved it! I am suffering with insomnia at the moment and this book has made those frustrating hours much much more enjoyable this week - after a few dnf books. Great writing! Original story.. Believable characters.
Highly recommended to quality Historical Fiction readers!