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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780142003077
ISBN number: 0142003077
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: July 29, 2003
Publishing house: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Release Date: July 29, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 13116
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed 'Hansel' and 'Gretel.' They wander in the woods until they are taken in by Magda, an eccentric and stubborn old woman called 'witch' by the nearby villagers. Magda is determined to save them, even as a German officer arrives in the village with his own plans for the children.
Combining classic themes of fairy tales and war literature, this haunting novel of journey and survival, of redemption and memory, powerfully depicts how war is experienced by families and especially by children, and tells a resonant, riveting story.
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Rated by buyers 
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This story was amazing. The author was ingenious, taking this fable and using it to tell the story of two children who have to fend for themselves during the Holocaust in Poland. I was intrigued with the setting of this novel since I am part Polish. The author chose The Bialowieza Forest for the setting of this story after seeing a television program about it. Reading about this makes me want to research it myself. Ms. Murphy also wrote a very detailed and disturbing description of the horrors of WWII and the murder of the Jews in gas chambers. This made the story almost like it really happened. This was an unforgettable story. One I highly recommend!!
Rated by buyers -
I'm not sure what I expected from this book when I purchased it, but was intrigued with the author's idea to take a well-known fairy tale and turn it into a fascinating drama. I was not disappointed.
Needless to say, this book is not for the faint of heart. Sections of this book are incredibly brutal and difficult to read. Not that the writing is bad, for it certainly isn't, just that the story brings to life the horrors of war, which in this case centers around treatment of Polish Jews during WWII by the Nazis. Some of the scene's depicted in this book had my literally squirming while I read them.
I found it laughable that another reviewer's chief complaint was about "crude language." They must be joking. The so-called "crude language" is nothing compared to most books I've read. I guess I find it funny that of all the things that someone could be offended by - the brutality, horror, annihilation of people by evil, war itself - they are offended by language.
I would love to read more from this author in the future.
Rated by buyers 
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This book I wanted to like and could not wait for it to arrive. It was very graphic and the language was horrible. This is not a great story or one that needed to be written. Don't waste your time or money.
Rated by buyers -
As they are chased by the Nazis through the Polish countryside in November 1943, a father and stepmother decide the best way for the family to survive is to send the two children into the forest. Hopefully, they will find a friendly farmer to take them in, and with their own lightened load, the father and stepmother can move faster and outrun the Nazis and their dogs. Knowing the children's Jewish names can mean death, the stepmother tells them their names are now Hansel and Gretel and to never utter their real names again. Through starvation, terror, betrayal and the horrors of life in hiding, the children never do utter their names again--and then they can no longer remember them. Their loss of identity is symbolic of all the Jews in Poland who died en mass, buried in unmarked graves or burned to ashes in the crematoriums as the Nazis tried to obliterate them from existence. In the end, the children have lost their names, seemingly forever, until someone finds them and knows their story. Their story is that of all the Jews who were not lost to us forever, whose names and stories live on in our memories, our museums and in our texts.
Rated by buyers -
A couple who are close friends of ours recommended this book. The man is a Polish American who was born in a Jewish slave camp during WWII. If the parallel to the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel doesn't bother them, then it doesn't bother me. This tale is well-written, well-researched, and deeply troubling. The characters are complex and well-developed; the entire novel is a beautifully orchestrated morality play. One part of the story is so horrific that I skipped five pages or so.
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