The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W

"The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W" by Cate Green is a powerful and moving novel that explores the resilience and strength of a Holocaust survivor. Nora Wojnaswki, the family matriarch and the oldest person ever to have lived, has a secret buried deep within her past. As she disappears with her carer Arifa on a trip down memory lane in London's East End, the truth about her wartime experiences is finally revealed.

Green's writing is poignant and evocative, capturing the emotions and struggles of Nora and her family as they navigate their shared history. Nora's character is beautifully portrayed, showcasing her determination, courage, and resilience despite the horrors she has faced. The novel delves into the themes of family, identity, and the power of memory, leaving readers with a deep sense of awe and admiration for Nora's story.

"The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W" is a unique and captivating read that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page. Green's storytelling is both heart-wrenching and heartwarming, drawing readers into Nora's world and showcasing the indomitable human spirit. This novel is a must-read for fans of historical fiction and those interested in stories of survival and triumph in the face of adversity.

'I am the oldest person ever to have lived in this world. I am the one who lived through their monster camps and brought the ones left of my family to London to make more family. I am the one to laugh at those angry, evil people and tell them, you see, I made it through. We made it through. This is enough. It is my world's record.'

This story was inspired by the author’s late mother-in-law, who was born in 1925 in Łódź up to the Nazi invasion of Poland. Along with thousands of other Polish Jews, her family lived inside the ghetto there, her father died there - of starvation. A year later, along with her mother, they were deported to Auschwitz. When they arrived there, her mother was shot and killed as she stepped off the train. One of Norma’s brothers was also killed, but her other brother and sister survived.

This is less about the Holocaust than it is about the effect it had on those that survived, as well as those who love them. The memories that haunt, but also the gratitude to have lived, despite those memories they can never forget. But there are other memories, ones filled with happy moments, as well.

’My great-grandmother has only eighteen days to go. There’s no need for alarm though. The doctors have not predicted her precise date of death, nor has she threatened hyper-geriatric suicide on that specific date. No, in eighteen days’ time she will become the world’s oldest person. Ever.’

The problem is that her great-grandmother wants nothing to do with this celebration of her 122nd birthday. The person who currently holds the record is a woman who ’was the last living person to have knowingly met Vincent van Gogh.’ But the family wants to celebrate her life, even if she doesn’t want to - at least not surrounded by people, and especially not with a camera crew.

Despite the hardships she has lived through, she does have money, although the amount is never mentioned, but enough to live on until those days come to an end. She isn’t rushing toward death, but at 121 and counting, she’s not in any hurry to go anywhere.

This is a story of family, and while it revolves around the woman who has lived more years than most, this is, essentially, a story of the mistakes and regrets, the memories - those of loss and horror, but also the happier ones, the ones of love.


Pub Date: 20 Jul 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by HarperCollinsUK, One More Chapter

"The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W" was an engaging and emotional read. Even though this is not a genre I usually read, I still found it interesting and enjoyable.
The story focuses on Nora W, who is on the cusp of becoming the oldest person in the world. Along with her caretaker, Arifa, Nora embarks on a journey down memory lane, revisiting her past. Her memories get jumbled up, but she is still quite sharp especially considering she is almost 122 ½.
The book touches on the after-effects of war on people, with Arifa being a Syrian refugee still grappling with the traumatic experiences she faced and Nora still struggling from her experiences in the Holocaust. It highlights that war trauma remains prevalent in today's world, and the book does an excellent job of exploring this theme in an approachable way. Additionally, the book reminds us of the importance of treasuring the people of our past and present. The characters are well written and developed, but I did struggle a bit to determine the perspective in the first few chapters. However, as I read further, I discovered that the book was written from the perspectives of three characters - Nora, Arifa, and Deborah, who is Nora's great-granddaughter and the family party planner. Although this caused some initial confusion, later on, it really could see how different the characters were.
The family tree and notes provided at the beginning of the book were helpful in keeping track of the characters and giving context behind the novel.
Overall, I highly recommend this touching and thought-provoking book to anyone looking for a good read.

Thank you, Harpercollins, One More Chapter, for this lovely arc!

I loved Nora. I loved that this was a inspired by the authors mother and showed the lasting effects wat can have on people. It was very well written and crafted.

I loved this multi layered, complex but ultimately very simple story of family, love, friendship, connections and joy. Based on Cate’s late Holocaust survivor mother in law, Nora W is soon to become the oldest ever person in the world at the age of 122. Her family want to celebrate this momentous milestone by throwing a lavish party. Nora wants nothing to do with it and puts obstacles in their path at their every effort to persuade her. Pushed to her limit, Nora makes a decision which has lasting effects for her biological and logical families.

I am the oldest person ever to have lived in this world. I am the one who lived through their monster camps and brought the ones left of my family to London to make more family. I am the one to laugh at those angry, evil people and tell them, you see, I made it through. We made it through. This is enough. It is my world's record.

Nora is not the only strong woman in this book. Her story is intertwined with Deborah, her granddaughter, and Arifa, her carer. It’s through these characters that the themes of the novel are explored; among them, family, tolerance, inter generational trauma, prejudice, immigration, aging, and of course love.

Cate tackles these themes head on with warmth and loads of humour. There’s history too as Nora tries to make sense of her jumbled, faded memories by revisiting the East End of London of her youth.

If you’re looking for a witty and poignant read with lashings of compassion, you just have to get to know Nora W.

“The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W” is a debut novel by Cate Green. This was not an easy book for me to read. Currently I am dealing with a parent requiring additional medical care (how I wish we had a person like Arifa in our lives!) but also the loss of a child. I, too, would call my child a Yiddish term of endearment, so reading that word caused heartache. Ms. Green has a line about childbirth being the hardest pain, but losing a child being even harder pain - and believe me when I say from experience, that is so true. But, I’m sure in this review, you care more about the actual book - not the reader’s current emotional state. Nora is a spry and sharp woman - and on the cusp of becoming the oldest person in the world [Hello Guinness Book of World Records!], while Nora wants one thing to mark this occasion (do we need a party?), her family wants something else (of course there’s going to be a party!). This book is so layered that it’s easy to forget that this book is mainly about families - they come in all shapes, forms, and structures - but there’s also love, heartache, joys, war experiences, hope, guilt, and memories. The characters were pretty easy to keep separate (may I say my heart was stolen by Arifa and her son - teenage boys, gotta love ‘em) and Ms. Green I think very nicely covered prejudice and how it really clouds our opinions of people [including a bit about how Nora herself was prejudiced against during WWII as a nice counter story]. This book was obviously written as a tribute to Ms. Green’s mother-in-law and I liked how Ms. Green also included a section on the names and why she chose them. Overall, a very strong debut novel.

Cate Green intrigued me when she wrote in the Prologue, “The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W is not a historical novel. It is not a novel about victims of war and injustice. It is a novel about the survivors of war and injustice and their lives as ordinary people with an extraordinary past…”

The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W is, indeed, just as described. It is multi-layered with nuances that the reader might miss, at first, but realize as they keep reading. It is the story of families, of histories too painful to remember, of the resilience of very strong women. It is the story of friendships, of trust, mistrust and love. It is the story of Jewish traditions, favorite foods and memori, Yiddish words (usually translated) and a long life, well lived.

The story, told by Nora’s granddaughter Deborah, started out a bit slow for me. The pace picked up as the reader is introduced to Nora Wojnawski, the centenarian soon to become the oldest living person in history, her caregiver Arifa, a Syrian immigrant and Nora’s family.

I was raised in a Jewish home, surrounded by maternal and paternal family, many Russian immigrants and Holocaust survivors. As such, I identified with so much of this story. For example, I only learned about my paternal grandparents experience during WWII in an article I found doing genealogy research a few months ago. Like Nora and Arifa they never talked about the “old country” or the people left behind. Jewish guilt is a “real” thing and I often felt Deborah’s angst as she juggled her emotions dealing with Bubby (Nora) and her parents.

The synopsis of The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W! adequately sets the scene of the novel so I don’t feel the need to retell the story. I will add that characters, such as Afria’s son Nasir and Deborah’s mother-in-law Sylvia, play important roles in helping Nora share her story.

As I continued reading, this novel grabbed me and held me close. I cried through most of the last chapter - tears of happiness as the ending warmed my heart. I cannot imagine anyone not enjoying The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W!

Thank you to One More Chapter and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this eARC.

It took me quite a while to get into this book and get used to the authors writing style here. I liked that the story is told through the characters of Deborah, Arifa and Nora and found this to be a poignant, engaging read which I think will stay with me for a while. Nora is a survivor of the Holocaust and Arifa is a survivor who has left her war torn country. There are many threads in the story - love, friendships, war and it's aftermath and how it affects those who have gone through it. I think the author portrayed her characters well and captured their thoughts, feelings and emotions eloquently. A book I enjoyed although it wasn't the page turner I was perhaps expecting and didn't wow me.

3.5 stars

This was a heartwarming story of a woman, Nora, who is about to be the oldest woman in the world. I enjoyed the relationship between Nora and her caretaker, and the multiple perspectives. This is perfect for anyone that likes a sweet story with characters that all have a story to tell. Highly recommend.

The Curious Kipnapping of Nora W by Cate Green

A very unusal and unique book with strong female characters . We have Nora a holocaust survivors , Arifa her carer & Deborah. There stories are linked by family and also some shared experiences.
The story is poignant , heartbraking and life affirming and the author captured the emotions and feelings of her characters perfectly.

Nora, weeks off becoming the oldest woman in the world, trapped in a decaying body, alive with an active mind and acute recollection of a life torn apart by war, ghettos and concentration camps. Arifa a daughter, wife, mother and established doctor, now a Syrian refugee living in an alien country, working in a care home doing the most basic of tasks, focused on surviving each day to keep her son safe from their dreams and memories of war and carnage. An unlikely friendship of survivors, generations apart in age but a unique unspoken bond , living each day to their own drum beat. An epic voyage to revisit the same paths travelled in a far distant past in what time is left with the ever faithful companion safeguarding the journey. A mind that can turn a modern landscape, synagogue, street and shop back to 1946 when sounds, smells, family and friends were as real today as yesteryear. A heartbreakingly beautiful story that brings three dimensional characters to life; a modern multi generational family drawn into the history of their past bringing back to life the numerous family members lost to the tragedy of the holocaust. A storyline that will linger long after the last page recognising the indomitable invincible spirit of a lost generation to the atrocities of war. A five star read based on a unique premise that cannot fail to move. Many thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Nora, will be the oldest person in the world in 18 days time. Her Great granddaughter Deborah has been tasked with organising Nora’s celebration to be held in the aged care facility Nora lives in. Nora however is not happy and with the help of her carer Arifa, she escapes the facility and returns to the East end of London where she and her husband had a shop.
Nora is a Holocaust survivor and the return to the East End of London is a walk down memory lane as it brings out secrets from her wartime experience.
The books chapters are structured as a countdown to the big day when Nora will have beaten the previous record holder of the oldest person in the world and it is written from the outlook of Nora, Deborah and Arifa.
It did take me little while to get into this book but I did enjoy the story.
Nora’s extended family is a complicated one so there are themes of family, love and survival but above all the book delves into how the war continues to affect those who have survived its horrors..
I loved Nora she was a feisty, determined and resilient woman.
A great weekend read

the cover doesn't show what your actually going to enjoy or expect. This debut book by Cate Green is an excellent read. it's based on the story of Nora, who's set to be the oldest person in the world. in this book is humorous and touching and very thought provoking all at the same time. what a good read

Family matriarch and Holocaust survivor Nora Wojnawski is about to become the oldest person in the world, ever, and her family are determined to celebrate in style. But Nora isn’t your average centenarian and she has other ideas. When she disappears with her carer Arifa on a trip down memory lane in the East End of London, a wartime secret, buried deep for over 70 years, will finally be revealed.

This is an amazing first novel by the author dealing with relationships, family, and growing old in style. I loved Nora and how she dealt with all of her family throughout the story. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for introducing me to a new author who I hope to see more of in the future.

I instantly fell in love with Nora’s character! What a formidable woman, friend, family matriarch and Holocaust survivor. At 122 plus years old, Nora makes party planning difficult for her great-granddaughter, Deborah, and it leads to family tension and an unsanctioned adventure.

It wasn’t too long after ‘meeting’ her Syrian refugee care aid, Arifa, that I concluded we all need an Arifa in our lives. Not only for the obvious reasons but also for the opportunity to be chaperoned on a trip down memory lane.

In the introduction, author Cate Green informs us that this “is a novel about survivors of war and injustice and their lives as ordinary people with an extraordinary past” and as I closed the final page, I noted that Green, a debut author, has definitely honoured the legacy of both groups with this fantastic novel. This story is a wonderful balance of humour, love, and trauma and highlights the Jewish family of both yesterday and today. War, like age, has lasting ripples and how we deal with those ripples determines the journey; do we ride against them or with them? Let Nora show you how it’s done!

I was gifted this copy by HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

I loved this book, I live in the bit of North London that Nora's family do and I come from proper East End Cockney stock so I felt a connection to Nora. I loved her bond with her carer, and the parallel between the two women - both refugees, both mothers who have lost their daughters and struggled. Moving and timely. I cried a bit too.

On the cusp of breaking the world record for oldest living person in the world, Nora Wojnaswki decides she’s had enough. Enough of the big to do her family is insisting upon to celebrate her milestone, enough of the assisted living facility she lives in and enough keeping the past buried so deep that it consumes her. She escapes the facility and moves in with her caretaker, Arifa…a woman who has also suffered the same great losses in her life just many, many years after Nora did.

With her family determined to make sense of her sudden move and changes, she begins to retrace her steps from arriving in London just after WWII and tells her life story.

I wanted to like this story more than I actually did. I felt several of the characters where difficult to like and for that, wanted to finish it quickly. Then I just focused on. Nora and all that she had been through in her 122+ years, from living in a ghetto to being sent to a concentration camp and having her young daughter torn away from her to making a new life for herself and her family in England…this is a story of strength. She needed her family see past the surface and superficial and remember what is really important. Family bonds and love.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK One More Chapter and Cate Green for an early copy in exchange for my review.

Excellent and emotional read.

I loved the characters and the way the story was told. The book touches on stories of friendships and family histories and the backdrop makes this quite difficult to read.

Really enjoyable book.

A wonderful debut that deals with history, trauma, survival, race and memory. Holocaust survivor Nora is about to become the oldest person in the world as she reaches 122. As her family is busy planning a party to celebrate the milestone and her entering the Guinness Book of records, at 18 days to go Nora absconds her care home to go and live with one of the carers there, Arifa, also a survivor of the Syrian conflict. The story is told from three perspectives - Arifa, Nora, and her great granddaughter Deborah = and is deceptively simple. But actually what Cate Green has done is incredibly clever - she has structured a narrative that tells of history but doesn't dwell or preach - instead creating two strong characters in Nora and Arifa living in the present with their memories serving as touch points to explain their choices throughout. While inspired by the authors Holocaust survivor mother in law, this is not a book about the Holocaust (although the references to it are there but told with a beautiful touch - especially when Nora is talking to her five year old great great granddaughter who needs her help when ill). It's a touching and thoughtful novel with injections of humour, strong characterisation of all the different personalities at play and a great sense of place. Highly recommend.

A story about strength, secrets and resiliency. It begins with a woman close to becoming the oldest person on earth and her great granddaughter who is tasked with hosting a party to celebrate it.

But Nora has other ideas as she checks herself out of the assisted living facility and into her carer’s (Syrian Refugee Arifa) house.

What happens next are the stories that are shared by these women and all they went throughout their wars. That shared pieces are what connect them together.

I read it quite quickly. It read well but something felt a little like I was missing a piece of the story.
Either way, it was a unique voice (s) and idea to leave a reader with a thought provoking read.

3.75 stars ⭐️ from me! I will 💯 pick up another story from this author