The Survivors by Kate Furnivall

Germany, 1945. Klara Janowska and her daughter Alicja have walked for weeks to get to Graufeld Displaced Persons camp. In the cramped, dirty, dangerous conditions they, along with 3,200 others, are the lucky ones. They have survived and will do anything to find a way back home.
 
But when Klara recognises a man in the camp from her past, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins.

He knows exactly what she did during the war to save her daughter.

She knows his real identity.

What will be the price of silence? And will either make it out of the camp alive?

I have previously read Kate Furnivall's The Liberation and found myself hanging on her every word so I was desperate to read her new release The Survivors. 

Klara Janowska and her beautiful young daughter Alicja are stuck in a post war displaced persons camp in Germany, they are doing what each and every person in there is attempting to do…. Survive. When Klara sets us on a new arrival in camp she is desperate to get her and her daughter away from Graufield Camp to protect her daughter from this threat from their past.

This was an extremely well written and researched storyline that captured my attention right from the eventful first chapter. The storyline is told from both Klara and her daughter Alicja points of view which worked really well and I admired both of the characters. Alicja was such a brave and determined little girl who quickly has to grow up and has seen and faced things that no child of her age should have experienced. Klara is a feisty, intelligent and desperate mother who will do what ever it takes to protect her child. I also loved Davide, he was a respectful gentleman with his own problems but his feelings for Klara were clear and honest I was desperate for a happy ending for him and Klara but his health was a constant worry to me.

There was a lot of ducking and diving to avoid capture and I did find around a third of the way through I just wanted something to progress. I loved that I was completely taken by surprise at one point in the book I couldn’t believe I had had no suspicions about some people’s real motives!

Kate Furnivall has such a vivid writing style which sets the scene and the tone of the book perfectly. This was an honest, raw and desperate storyline with a mother’s love, determination and survival at the heart. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

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