All the Beautiful Things by Katrina Nannestad

Title: All the Beautiful Things

Author: Katrina Nannestad

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Published: 30^th October 2024

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 352

Price: $22.99

Synopsis:  A new heart-wrenching, impeccably researched historical novel for middle-grade readers

The Nazis want everyone to be the same. If you’re different, you don’t belong.

Not belonging is dangerous …

Anna’s little sister, Eva, is frail and needs time to learn new things. She has a huge heart and a gift for loving, but Hitler doesn’t value such riches. And so, she’s hidden away. Safe for now, but with the threat of discovery always near.

Anna does her best to bring joy and light to Eva’s small life. But soon, more children need hiding. Risks are taken — by Anna, by her best friend Udo, by a Nazi seamstress and feisty Brunhilde. Until Anna wonders if any of them will make it through the war …

Loyalty and love. Family and friendship. Understanding and tolerance. Right and wrong. Multi-award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad explores it all in this thrilling and powerful historical novel.

~*~

During World War II in Germany, Anna’s life revolves around school, her best friend, Udo, her mother and little sister, Eva. But it’s 1943 and the Nazis are always trying to get rid of people they don’t like or see as weak. Little girls like Eva, who is frail and sick, and in Hitler’s eyes, she’s not worthy. She’s not a perfect little Aryan like her sister. And nor is Anna’s new friend at the Young Girl’s League, Brunhilde. To protect Eva, Anna and her mother have to shrink Eva’s world, working to keep her safe with help from Udo, Brunhilde, Dr Fischer, Udo’s father, and Gisela, a Nazi seamstress who has her own secrets. But things are getting worse as the war enters its last years, and the Nazis are determined to destroy everything good in the world. As time goes on, Anna and her mother are forced to send Eva into hiding with Gisela, and the characters take the biggest risks they have ever taken to protect Eva and bring joy into her life when they can. But soon, as the war starts to head into its dying days and the Nazis do all they can to destroy what is left, more children need to be hidden. Anna starts to wonder if anyone will survive the war, if anyone will ever truly be safe again.

Friendship, love, family and loyalties are tested throughout the novel as a world of hatred and intolerance, right and wrong is fought with the understanding, tolerance and kindness of children and people willing to take risks whilst pretending to support the very thing they’re working against. It is up to them to make things a little easier in sneaky ways and to protect those who need it. If they don’t pretend to support the regime, they can’t help Eva and be there for her when it is all over. When she can come out into the world again. If it ever happens. In true Katrina Nannestad style, this novel, set in World War Two Germany and seen through the eyes of children who know things are wrong and do what they can to fight it, is sombre and sobering. It reminds us that it can be very easy to believe the lies you are told by people in power. That it can be easy to follow the crowd and do what you are told. Even if at heart, you don’t believe it or want to question it.

It’s a special novel that shows how disabled people have been treated historically and how Jewish people, Sinti people or anyone that Hitler’s regime deemed ‘unsuitable’ was treated and dealt with. It doesn’t shy away from the truth, making sure readers are aware of what happened whilst writing about it in a way that younger readers will hopefully not find too confronting. Each of Katrina’s historical novels deal with tough issues and themes of World War Two that may be known about, but may not be discussed as often as other aspects. In doing so, she brings history to life in new ways, and tells stories that we may not hear or get to read elsewhere. It means that the voices of those who resisted are being heard, and the stories of their families are also being told.

All the Beautiful Things is as much a story of resistance as it is about loyalty and family, but also, finding out what it means when the rules you think exist start to crumble, and your world changes in so many ways. It is a book that will make you question prejudices and what we assume disabled people are like, and ponder how we can help people who need it. And I think makes us ask ourselves what we would do if we ever found ourselves in a similar situation. Another wonderful novel from Katrina Nannestad.