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    The Wish Child: A Novel
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    The Wish Child: A Novel
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    The Wish Child: A Novel
    Ebook366 pages6 hours

    The Wish Child: A Novel

    By Catherine Chidgey

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    WINNER OF THE ACORN FOUNDATION FICTION PRIZE AT THE OCKHAM NEW ZEALAND BOOK AWARDS

    “A remarkable book with a stunningly original twist.” —The Times (London)

    This international bestselling historical novel follows two children and a mysterious narrator as they navigate the falsehoods and wreckage of WW II Germany

    Germany, 1939. As Germany’s hope for a glorious future begins to collapse, two children, Sieglinde and Erich, find temporary refuge in an abandoned theater amid the rubble of Berlin. Outside, white bedsheets hang from windows; all over the city, people are talking of surrender. The days Sieglinde and Erich spend together will shape the rest of their lives.

    Watching over them is the wish child, the enigmatic narrator of their story. He sees what they see, he feels what they feel, yet his is a voice that comes from deep inside the ruins of a nation’s dream.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCounterpoint
    Release dateOct 2, 2018
    ISBN9781640090989
    Author

    Catherine Chidgey

    Catherine Chidgey was born in New Zealand in 1970. She is the author of In a Fishbone Church (1999), for which she received the Betty Trask Award, Golden Deeds (2000) and The Transformation (2005). Catherine Chidgey now lives in Dunedin

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    Reviews for The Wish Child

    4/5

    21 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I won this in the Early Reviewers group. I first thought it sounded interesting because it was about 2 (possibly 3) children in Germany during World War II. My wife is interested in World War II history and over the years has sparked the same interest in me. I had the impression that this was an young adult novel, but not sure where I got that from.Anyway this was also an audiobook so I thought it would be easy to listen to.The story starts in 1939 Berlin and follows two children, Erich and Sieglinde, who live very different lives. The story blends in other family members and characters and tells a story that I never considered before. The World War II as told from the viewpoints of everyday German citizens. It covers the hardships they suffer and the hopes they have that Germany will win the war and the Fuhrer will deliver what he has promised. And the ultimate loss of the war and the sufferings and hardships of a war torn city. Eric and Sieglinde are brought together and help each other cope with tragedy, Then they are parted again and face an uncertain future. All the while parts of the story are narrated by a third child, the "wish child" of the title who sees all and hears all that happens, without being known and whose identity remains clouded until the end.This story was wonderful, sad, humorous, thought provoking, tragic and joyful. The narration on this audiobook, I believe, helped make the story even more enjoyable. Simon Vance has a wonderful award winning delivery that brings the story to life.I highly recommend this book and wholeheartedly endorse it.
    • 4/5
      The Wish Child is the story of two children, living through WW II in Germany. Their journeys, both together and separate are followed as they are forced from their homes and must survive in Berlin. Despite their hardships they are followers of the Nazi doctrines and practices. Their lives move apart as the war slows down their lives continue to change. Interest and reality are provided through changing narrators voices and distance of time as the past is explored and pieced together by Chidgey though letters. “The wish child” perspective flushes out the differences and sameness of the two primary characters during their lives and provides a contrast. I give this book a 4 star and recommend it to readers of of WW II literature.
    • 5/5
      There are so many great novels set in Germany during World War II that show different aspects of the war, whether it's the persecution of the Jews in concentration camps, the resistance by Germans who hid Jews in their basement, or heroic Allied soldiers shot down in enemy territory. But this is the first time I've come across a book that shows what might even be called mainstream German attitudes during the time before, during and after the war. The characters in this book are proud of Germany's heritage and excited by a glorious future led by their charismatic leader, Adolf Hitler. But as the war brings home casualties and sacrifices for everyone, the enthusiasm begins to dim and morale falls into despair toward the end of the war. The story alternates between the lives of two children, a girl Siggi who lives in Berlin, and Erich, a boy who grows up in the country. The story is told by an omniscient narrator, called the Wish Child, whose identity is shockingly revealed at the end. There is so much to be learned in this book about how a country can be swept up in the promise of greatness and follow a maniacal leader (sound familiar USA?). And the writing is amazing with much left to the reader's interpretation. This would be a perfect book club selection!
    • 2/5
      This is an odd historical fiction story about some (unrelated in any way that I could see) families living in Germany during World War II. I'm afraid I cannot be more detailed in my description, because frankly, I could not make it past the third disk in the audiobook. The story was disjointed and very hard to follow, it jumped from person to person and place to place quite randomly, and it seemed like the author took several historical liberties, exaggerating things to better push her messages. I usually enjoy historical fiction books, especially of this time period, but I just couldn't get into this one. Two stars.
    • 5/5
      It is difficult to read THE WISH CHILD without thinking of current events. At this juncture, we are facing existential threats from environmental decline and the worldwide resurgence of authoritarianism. Setting her novel in urban Berlin and rural Leipzig during one of the darkest periods of history provides Chidgey with a platform to explore themes that resonate today. Blind adherence to an ideology despite growing evidence of the damage it is causing leaves precious room for claims of innocence or ignorance. Her imagery is subtle but nonetheless quite powerful. Communities are required to trade church bells for war materiel; precious clothes and samovars all of a sudden become available at auction; and society accepts hardship in exchange for lies that predict a glorious future. Clearly Chidgey believes the manipulation of language is how such things come about. She mines this vein masterfully convincing the reader that words do indeed matter. Teachers indoctrinate school children to Nazi propaganda; mothers censor sadness and hardship from letters to the front; and a censor spends his days literally excising words from documents. When asked by his young daughter what his job is, her father tells her: “I make things safe.” The words he removes suggest the kind of denial that is so often present under authoritarian regimes (“freedom”, “defeat”, “promise”, “love”, “mercy”). The inevitable outcomes are unintelligible documents, which appear in the novel at the beginning of each chapter.The mysterious omniscient narrator gives the narrative a fable-like tone. Showing exquisite control, Chidgey slowly reveals clues about this “wish child” as the story progresses. He seems to blindly accept Nazi dogma concerning Germany’s inherent superiority but readily admits that politics is not his focus. ‘Let me say that I was not in the world long enough to understand it well, so can give you only impressions …’ These impressions are parallel stories of two children who come of age during the war.Sieglinde Heilmann has a comfortable middle-class life in Berlin. Her parents listen and obey the government. As a bright and sensitive girl, Sieglinde struggles to understand especially as her world tragically collapses around her.Erich Kröning is an only child living on a rural farm near Leipzig. His life revolves around learning beekeeping. His father is away at the Eastern front while his mother tends the farm with the help of Polish workers. While never explicitly stating it, these workers are clearly POW’s, possibly Jews. Despite being a child with a perfect “German face,” Eric’s exposure to the Poles begins to raise doubts about his own shadowy past.The plot represents an extended flashback from 1995. Sieglinde is now elderly and the Berlin wall is no more. She works as a “puzzler.” These specialists were tasked to restore documents that were shredded by the Stasi. Chidgey provides this as a stunning rebuke of her father’s work removing words from documents for the Nazis, while Sieglinde works to reconstruct them for the victors.Sieglinde and Eric meet by chance in a destroyed Berlin during the closing days of the war. They join forces to survive in the rubble of a bombed-out theater. Following a traumatic incident, the children become separated and lose track of each other. Their predictable reunion seems to be the only flaw in this otherwise well-constructed plot.The narrative is innovative in several ways. The controlled revelation of the identity of the book’s narrator provides a unique perspective compared to the plethora of more conventional novels set in WW2. The switching between rural and urban experiences shows daily life in Germany during the time of the Nazis. People are compliant with the regime while turning a blind eye to the atrocities that are right there to be seen. The periodic cameo appearances of hausfraus Müller and Miller are particularly effective at showing attitudes on the home front in a darkly humorous way. Also the masterful use of metaphors captures the sense of the times while keeping the activities of the Wehrmacht at a distance: industrious bees for the obedient populous; paper silhouettes for the things that were being lost and destroyed and especially the excision of words from documents followed by their rebuilding from scraps to represent how history is manipulated to hide the truth but eventually emerges.