*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.
Title: The Polish Wife
Author: Gosia Nealon
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★★
The Polish Wife
tells the story of Anna and Mateusz and their work for the Polish resistance in
Warsaw during the Second World War. Married to an abusive member of the Nazi
party and the daughter of a famous engineer who would also go on to work for
the Nazis, Anna flees Germany with the help of her mother and escapes to Poland.
Now residing in Warsaw, Anna opens ‘Café Anna’ which she uses to gather
intelligence which can be passed onto the Polish resistance. Mateusz followed
in his father’s footsteps and became a well-loved doctor in his community but
when he is approached by the Nazi’s to become their doctor, he shuts his
practise and starts working for the resistance, where he meets Anna. But one
day their hope for a future together, and their resistance work, is shattered
when Anna’s husband tracks her down.
The Polish Wife
is the second book in Gosia Nealon’s Secret Resistance Series and, after
reading The Polish Girl earlier this year, I was eagerly awaiting its
publication and it did not disappoint. Gosia Nealon has a captivating writing
style which really pulls you into the story and makes it impossible to put it
down and The Polish Wife is no exception. I was hooked from the prologue and thoroughly
enjoyed the fast-paced exploration of themes such as revenge, secrets and
romance.
There is an
overlap of both events and characters between The Polish Wife and The Polish Girl,
with operations such as the Warsaw Uprising featuring in both. Many of the characters
featured in The Polish Wife had been introduced during the events of The Polish
Girl and it was fantastic to have an opportunity to return to them and experience
their perspectives on the events from the previous book.
Despite being a
work of fiction, there is a lot of historical accuracy in the book and, as you
can expect from Gosia Nealon, it was impeccably researched. In a similar format
to The Polish Girl, The Polish Wife doesn’t end at the end of the Second World
War and I do think this exploration of the experiences of the characters beyond
VE Day really sets the Secret Resistance series apart from other historical
fiction works of a similar nature. In this case we get an insight into life in Poland
after the occupation of Poland by Soviet troops following Nazi Germany’s
surrender. Despite being an avid reader of WW2 Historical Fiction, this is an
aspect of European history I'd not seen explored in other fictional works and
it was brilliantly done.
Continuing the high
standard of well-written characters Gosia Nealon set in The Polish Girl, the
characters in The Polish Wife were beautifully complex and we have another
really strong female protagonist in Anna who demonstrated such strength,
bravery and tenacity throughout the story. Anna’s escape from domestic abuse was
superbly and emotively explored and the blossoming romance between Anna and
Mateusz was beautiful and well-developed as the story progressed and their
connection grew. I also enjoyed the parallel between Anna in The Polish Wife
and Wanda in The Polish Girl as both women take in and care for young children
who had been ripped away from their parents due to the war.
The chapters are
short and snappy, quickly taking us on a fast-paced journey through Anna’s life
over twelve years. In order to fully explore this extended time period, we do
have frequent jumps forward in time by months or even years at a time. Overall,
this was executed well for the most part but I did find myself craving an
insight into Anna’s move to Poland and how she established a new life away from
her abusive husband so the allocation of a little more page space to explore
this aspect of the story in greater depth would have been well received.
A fantastic well-crafted
epilogue brings the story to a close and it was a nice choice to give a little
nod to Wanda and Finn as well as Anna and Mateusz as it brought the story of
the four of them to a satisfying close.
I found The
Polish Wife to be a 4* read overall as although we do have a really strong
story and there were lots of different aspects of the plot which were all very
interesting and had great potential to them, there was simply not enough page
space to explore them all in the depth I craved. I would have loved the book to
be a couple hundred pages longer to allow for further exploration of aspects of
the plot such as Anna’s move to Poland, the return of Anna’s abusive Nazi
husband, Anna and Mateusz’s work in the underground hospital and Mateusz’s resistance
fight against the Red Army after the end of the war. It is also worth noting
that the plot point surrounding Leszek’s revenge plan seemed underdeveloped and
we were given very little context for what Mateusz had supposedly done in order
to warrant it. This made it harder to engage with and I do honestly think the
story wouldn’t have lost much had this aspect of the plot been removed.
Overall, The Polish
Wife is another incredible historical fiction work from Gosia Nealon which fans
of the genre are guaranteed to love.
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