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The Train to Warsaw
Jascha and Lilka separately fled from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. Reunited years later, they live in London where Jascha has become a celebrated writer, feted for his dark tales about his war adventures. One day, forty years after the war, Jascha receives a letter inviting him to give a reading in Warsaw. He tells Lilka that nothing remains of the city they knew and that wild horses couldn’t drag him back. Nostalgic for the city of her childhood, Lilka prevails; together, traveling by train through a frozen December landscape, they return to the city of their past. When they unwittingly find themselves back in what was once the ghetto, they will discover that they still have secrets between them.
A riveting story of the nature of desire and the cost of survival, The Train to Warsaw is a haunting and unforgettable portrait of a man and a woman who cannot escape their past.
A riveting story of the nature of desire and the cost of survival, The Train to Warsaw is a haunting and unforgettable portrait of a man and a woman who cannot escape their past.
195 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
September 1, 2020
I was initially wavering between 4 and 5 stars, but ...
This quietly emotional novella is written as a series of ongoing conversations filled with haunting and poignant memories and nightmares. Each paragraph becomes a stanza in this poetically lyrical story of a longing for homecoming and the realization of loss. It is a lament that follows in the tradition of the exile writings of Mickiewicz and Sienkiewicz.
"Lilka stared at him. You never told me that. Jascha shrugged. We've only been together forty years, he said. I haven't yet had time to tell you everything. He blew his nose. But I will darling. I will."
Gwen Edelman, The Train to Warsaw
This quietly emotional novella is written as a series of ongoing conversations filled with haunting and poignant memories and nightmares. Each paragraph becomes a stanza in this poetically lyrical story of a longing for homecoming and the realization of loss. It is a lament that follows in the tradition of the exile writings of Mickiewicz and Sienkiewicz.
"Lilka stared at him. You never told me that. Jascha shrugged. We've only been together forty years, he said. I haven't yet had time to tell you everything. He blew his nose. But I will darling. I will."
Gwen Edelman, The Train to Warsaw
April 12, 2014
Powerful in its simplicity, this is the story of Jascha and Lilka. They are returning to Warsaw forty years after their separate escape from the Warsaw ghetto. Economical use of words along with short paragraphs highlight the conversation between husband and wife.
Jascha had become a well known author, writing a book that featured the horrifying experiences he encountered in the ghetto. He has been invited to Poland to give a reading from one of his books. When they arrive in Warsaw, nothing is as Lilka remembered it, and for both their days before and after the ghetto consume them.
At first I felt Jascha was a bit of a jerk, could not relate to this character at all but by the end I had a much better understanding. He could not forget and could not forgive. The stories the two of them reveal are of course horrible, and the trip opens wounds that have not closed. Even after forty years together there are secrets that each reveal while in Warsaw. At little over 200 pgs. this book covers quite a bit of ground. A very big read in a small book.
Jascha had become a well known author, writing a book that featured the horrifying experiences he encountered in the ghetto. He has been invited to Poland to give a reading from one of his books. When they arrive in Warsaw, nothing is as Lilka remembered it, and for both their days before and after the ghetto consume them.
At first I felt Jascha was a bit of a jerk, could not relate to this character at all but by the end I had a much better understanding. He could not forget and could not forgive. The stories the two of them reveal are of course horrible, and the trip opens wounds that have not closed. Even after forty years together there are secrets that each reveal while in Warsaw. At little over 200 pgs. this book covers quite a bit of ground. A very big read in a small book.
March 5, 2022
Quarante ans après, Jascha et son épouse Lilka reviennent vers cette terre qui, jadis, les a marqué pour toujours.
Alternant, passé et présent, ce récit nous livre les souffrances, tourments et exile de deux êtres toujours hantés par une Varsovie qu'ils ont du fuir afin de survivre.
Entre cigarettes, boissons, querelles et tendresse, les deux personnages ressassent leurs souvenirs, traumatismes, horreurs et douleurs et nous relatent leurs jeunesse et leur peurs.
J'ai vraiment adoré l'absence des lignes de dialogue, on passe d'un personnage à l'autre sans pour autant distinguer quand l'un termine sa narration et l'autre la commence.
Une belle lecture que je recommande.
Alternant, passé et présent, ce récit nous livre les souffrances, tourments et exile de deux êtres toujours hantés par une Varsovie qu'ils ont du fuir afin de survivre.
Entre cigarettes, boissons, querelles et tendresse, les deux personnages ressassent leurs souvenirs, traumatismes, horreurs et douleurs et nous relatent leurs jeunesse et leur peurs.
J'ai vraiment adoré l'absence des lignes de dialogue, on passe d'un personnage à l'autre sans pour autant distinguer quand l'un termine sa narration et l'autre la commence.
Une belle lecture que je recommande.
June 16, 2017
Adult content. I'm not quite sure I'd recommend this one. It drove me a little crazy because there were no quotation marks. It didn't even switch paragraphs when it switched speakers. The format made it seem a little like stream of consciousness.
A refugee couple return to Warsaw after living in London for 40 years. They return to the ghetto where they were interned during WWII. While on their trip, they learn more secrets about what happened to each other during the war. The themes that are explored are-- once the people you love are gone, you can never return home again and the Polish people are partially to blame for the atrocities that occurred to the Jewish people during German Occupation.
A refugee couple return to Warsaw after living in London for 40 years. They return to the ghetto where they were interned during WWII. While on their trip, they learn more secrets about what happened to each other during the war. The themes that are explored are-- once the people you love are gone, you can never return home again and the Polish people are partially to blame for the atrocities that occurred to the Jewish people during German Occupation.
April 13, 2014
The Train to Warsaw is an interesting work in both content and style. Jascha and Lilka, Jewish lovers who met in the Warsaw ghetto, escaped separately, and reunited in London years later are the passengers on this train. Jascha has become a famous writer and is invited to Poland to give a reading. He has no desire to return to the country that nearly killed him—and did kill so many. Lilka, with fond memories of prewar Warsaw, wants to return “home” and convinces him to accept the invitation. Of course, the home she remembers ceased to exist years ago.
The plot of this novel is predictable: Jascha and Lilka remember the horrors of the past, and on their journey both reveal parts of their stories to they’ve hidden from one another for more than forty years. But the fact that the reader can predict the overall arc of the novel, doesn’t make it any less engaging. Edelman presents these two characters with such care and specificity that their experiences seem new precisely because these are their experiences.
A major theme here is complicity: the complicity of the Poles who handed Jews over to the Nazis for the benefits this would bring them; the complicity of the Jewish police within the ghetto; the complicity in the suffering of others that no ghetto resident could avoid. Both Jascha and Lilka view their survival as a betrayal of sorts. They lived when so few did, and both lived because they found ways to construct new, non-Jewish identities for themselves.
Jascha and Lilka keep their sense of complicity close at hand, probing it the way one probes any physically or emotionally painful area—to confirm the pain and to keep reminding one’s self that the pain has been survived, if not escaped.
The Polish nation they return to, unlike them, is determined to forget the past. When Jascha challenges his Polish audience by reading a particularly devastating section of one of his novels set in the ghetto, everyone finds a way to distance herself or himself from the genocide. The young say they weren’t born then; the old say they suffered as well during the occupation; those in the middle claim they were too young during the war to have any kind of responsibility. And the reader, of course, is left to wonder if such deliberate forgetting may lead to repetition.
The novel is composed primarily of conversations, both in the present and the past, and because Edelman doesn’t use standard dialogue formatting (no quotation marks here), the reader is forced to be attentive to the shifts in the narrative being constructed. The prose is deceptively simple, obscuring at first the fractal-like complexity of events, time, and emotion.
This is a book that can be read in an evening, but one that will require a much longer period than that to fully absorb—the sort of book that remains satisfying long after one has finished it.
The plot of this novel is predictable: Jascha and Lilka remember the horrors of the past, and on their journey both reveal parts of their stories to they’ve hidden from one another for more than forty years. But the fact that the reader can predict the overall arc of the novel, doesn’t make it any less engaging. Edelman presents these two characters with such care and specificity that their experiences seem new precisely because these are their experiences.
A major theme here is complicity: the complicity of the Poles who handed Jews over to the Nazis for the benefits this would bring them; the complicity of the Jewish police within the ghetto; the complicity in the suffering of others that no ghetto resident could avoid. Both Jascha and Lilka view their survival as a betrayal of sorts. They lived when so few did, and both lived because they found ways to construct new, non-Jewish identities for themselves.
Jascha and Lilka keep their sense of complicity close at hand, probing it the way one probes any physically or emotionally painful area—to confirm the pain and to keep reminding one’s self that the pain has been survived, if not escaped.
The Polish nation they return to, unlike them, is determined to forget the past. When Jascha challenges his Polish audience by reading a particularly devastating section of one of his novels set in the ghetto, everyone finds a way to distance herself or himself from the genocide. The young say they weren’t born then; the old say they suffered as well during the occupation; those in the middle claim they were too young during the war to have any kind of responsibility. And the reader, of course, is left to wonder if such deliberate forgetting may lead to repetition.
The novel is composed primarily of conversations, both in the present and the past, and because Edelman doesn’t use standard dialogue formatting (no quotation marks here), the reader is forced to be attentive to the shifts in the narrative being constructed. The prose is deceptively simple, obscuring at first the fractal-like complexity of events, time, and emotion.
This is a book that can be read in an evening, but one that will require a much longer period than that to fully absorb—the sort of book that remains satisfying long after one has finished it.
May 30, 2014
Jascha and Lilka are living in London, forty years after their escape from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. Jascha, an author receives an invitation to do a reading in Warsaw, and this sees them on a journey back to the city they thought they would not see again. Bringing back memories of their childhoods and family and friends they lost, this short novel is moving and brutal at the same time.
Although touching, somehow I felt a bit cheated reading this book, as somehow it did seem to brush over several areas, and I wanted to know more about their lives. I couldn't quite believe in the characters and picture them in my mind.
Although touching, somehow I felt a bit cheated reading this book, as somehow it did seem to brush over several areas, and I wanted to know more about their lives. I couldn't quite believe in the characters and picture them in my mind.
November 17, 2019
I loved the premise of this book. It's an older couple. They met in Warsaw after the Jews are rounded up and put into a ghetto. They meet, she is a nurse and he is a smuggler. While they fall in love, they are unable to get out of Warsaw together. They have to leave separately and don't meet again for a few years. They marry and live in England together.
He becomes a famous writer and eventually he is invited back to Poland. She convinces him to go and on the train and in Warsaw, they reminisce and remember the good and bad times of the Nazi occupation. The book felt so disconnected. All of the stories were told as memories so they remained disjointed. The author never used quotation marks so I would get confused about who was talking.
I didn't like the premise of the book. That on this trip, stories and secrets came out that the other had never heard before. They had kept these secrets for 40 years. And when they did come out, it didn't seem like that big a deal to the other person. Just a "why have you never told me that?" and then moving on.
I picked it up because I was really interested about a Warsaw perspective, but I did not enjoy it.
He becomes a famous writer and eventually he is invited back to Poland. She convinces him to go and on the train and in Warsaw, they reminisce and remember the good and bad times of the Nazi occupation. The book felt so disconnected. All of the stories were told as memories so they remained disjointed. The author never used quotation marks so I would get confused about who was talking.
I didn't like the premise of the book. That on this trip, stories and secrets came out that the other had never heard before. They had kept these secrets for 40 years. And when they did come out, it didn't seem like that big a deal to the other person. Just a "why have you never told me that?" and then moving on.
I picked it up because I was really interested about a Warsaw perspective, but I did not enjoy it.
September 12, 2018
The book's premise is quite interesting - an old couple visit a Warsaw ghetto 40 years after they fled from it. The book is written in a free-flowing style and there are no chapters at all. It goes a bit back and forth from the present to the past and back and hence is a little difficult to grasp. I finished the book in two sittings but the end disappointed me; it seemed a bit contrived.
The descriptions of the train route and the locales in Warsaw were amazing! I could almost visualize myself there.
The descriptions of the train route and the locales in Warsaw were amazing! I could almost visualize myself there.
April 8, 2024
Once you got used to the different writing style it ended up being a good short story.
July 26, 2016
3.5 Stars. I successfully managed to avoid reading very much about World War II and the atrocities upon Jewish people in high school. That entire time in history just was too devastating and honestly I didn’t want to learn any more than the bare bones information to pass any tests and remain ignorant. Stupid? Yes, absolutely. Schindler’s List came out during that time and was widely being discussed and many classes were going to see it; I couldn’t bring myself to attend. I have yet to see that movie and doubt that I will be able to do so. However, now that I am older and have begun homeschooling I absolutely LOVE reading history and sharing this knowledge of the past with my daughter.
The Train to Warsaw is not a children’s book, and I will not be using it as curriculum. Seeing this book in the “New Releases” section of my local library I was compelled to check it out. When I first began reading I closed the book and nearly passed on reading it, not because of content but from annoyance over the layout, which is horrible. Each page has roughly three paragraphs, no quotation marks to set of dialog, and is not set up in a standard conversational way of beginning a new paragraph and indenting when the next person speaks. The story though was exceedingly well done and gripped ahold of my heart despite the poor presentation. My only other criticism was the amount of sex or suggestive banter. While I found it very sweet that this older married couple still found comfort and joy in one another’s embrace, reading a bit less about it would have been preferred. This book totally changed my greatly flawed image of what life was like in the ghetto in Poland in the 1940s.
The Train to Warsaw is not a children’s book, and I will not be using it as curriculum. Seeing this book in the “New Releases” section of my local library I was compelled to check it out. When I first began reading I closed the book and nearly passed on reading it, not because of content but from annoyance over the layout, which is horrible. Each page has roughly three paragraphs, no quotation marks to set of dialog, and is not set up in a standard conversational way of beginning a new paragraph and indenting when the next person speaks. The story though was exceedingly well done and gripped ahold of my heart despite the poor presentation. My only other criticism was the amount of sex or suggestive banter. While I found it very sweet that this older married couple still found comfort and joy in one another’s embrace, reading a bit less about it would have been preferred. This book totally changed my greatly flawed image of what life was like in the ghetto in Poland in the 1940s.
May 2, 2014
*** Received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads ***
I was really exciting to get a copy of this book to review as I have been to Warsaw and I have studied Eastern Europe extensively, but I really just did not care for this book. I've read lots of books about this subject matter - treatment of Jews during WWII - and I just think others were better written. It may be that I just really don't care for the style of writing by this author, or specifically this book. The book reads like a play in that there are basically two people (Jascha and Lilka) in very limited settings (on a train, in a hotel room, at a reading event), and they recount their memories of living as Jews in Poland before, during, and after incarceration by the Germans. The way the dialog is written really forces you to pay attention because there are long paragraphs with both characters speaking in them, and no use of quotation marks.
This is a relatively short book, and I should have been able to breeze through it, but I found myself struggling and forcing myself to get to the end. I probably would have given it 2.5 stars because, though the format and writing irritated me, the subject matter was interesting, and it really was like being a fly on the wall around this couple. I did not find the characters likeable to any extent of the word, but they were realistic. I don't know if the author's first book was similar to this one in style, or not, but I don't think I'll be reading it to find out.
I was really exciting to get a copy of this book to review as I have been to Warsaw and I have studied Eastern Europe extensively, but I really just did not care for this book. I've read lots of books about this subject matter - treatment of Jews during WWII - and I just think others were better written. It may be that I just really don't care for the style of writing by this author, or specifically this book. The book reads like a play in that there are basically two people (Jascha and Lilka) in very limited settings (on a train, in a hotel room, at a reading event), and they recount their memories of living as Jews in Poland before, during, and after incarceration by the Germans. The way the dialog is written really forces you to pay attention because there are long paragraphs with both characters speaking in them, and no use of quotation marks.
This is a relatively short book, and I should have been able to breeze through it, but I found myself struggling and forcing myself to get to the end. I probably would have given it 2.5 stars because, though the format and writing irritated me, the subject matter was interesting, and it really was like being a fly on the wall around this couple. I did not find the characters likeable to any extent of the word, but they were realistic. I don't know if the author's first book was similar to this one in style, or not, but I don't think I'll be reading it to find out.
December 9, 2014
Stark in it's simplicity yet powerful. Told almost entirely through conversation, this the tale of a couple who met, fell in love and survived/escaped the Warsaw ghetto, were reunited in England after the war and are now returning to Warsaw many decades later will stick with me. I found much of it bittersweet, this desire to return home, knowing it's not home, the reflections on back then and back there. They've created a new a successful life, they've coped well but of course the past is ever with them. They self medicate with alcohol and tobacco rather a lot, enough that the lighting of a cigarette began to annoy me but then I watched a a few episodes of Call the Midwife and was reminded that smoking was so much more common back in the day, that cigarettes were part of a soldiers rations and I recalled the shock I had watching Ghostbusters on VHS for the first time - I'd completely forgotten how MUCH they were smoking event then. Anyway, back on topic, powerful, short, quick read (though it took me two weeks to get around to reviewing it).
April 18, 2014
Beautifully written. I felt the main characters pain and loss as they remember what life in their native Warsaw used to be before the Holocaust. They return after 40 years to attend a lecture and end up with more questions than answers.
As I write this, Jews in the Ukraine are being threatened if they do not register their names, family names and all property they own they face deportation. Has anything really changed?
As I write this, Jews in the Ukraine are being threatened if they do not register their names, family names and all property they own they face deportation. Has anything really changed?
April 10, 2014
I felt the writing was very poor, as the author switched back and forth from each character without indicating who was now "speaking". I also thought the interaction between the 2 characters was quite drab, and the story of Warsaw has been better told.
July 10, 2014
The Warsaw ghetto as recollected by a bickering survivor couple visiting the city for the first time in 40 years while self-medicating with nicotine and alcohol. 3.5 stars. It starts out slowly and gets better as it progresses and secrets are revealed near the end.
March 28, 2024
In total this took me 4 hours and 27 minutes to read. It's less than 200 pages long but don't let that fool you. If I hadn't already been challenging myself this year with classics and more serious reads, this would have been extremely difficult to read. As it was I still found this challenging due to the way Edelman chose to write this (the reasons I gave this 4 instead of 5 stars). Which means no quotation markings, no paragraphs that make any sense, no breaks, no detailed scene setting, no chapters, nothing to indicate a frequent flashback and not even separating dialogue from the two main characters into separate lines. It is so confusing to decipher which character is saying what throughout the entire novel especially when it's neutral dialogue that could be spoken by either crabby Jascha or hopeful Lilka.
Both characters are in their 60s and its 40 years after the end of the war or maybe since they escaped seperately from Warsaw so its roughly early- to mid-80s.
Jascha, a famous novelist, has been invited back to Warsaw from London to give a reading but he hates Warsaw and the Polish he argues didn't help Polish-Jews in the 30s-40s. He's an extremely bitter character and oftentimes a jerk. But then again, wouldn't you be if you lived through what he did? I can forgive him his jerkiness until after he reunited with Lilka in London years after the war. He got famous very quickly with his debut novel and slept with countless women while Lilka sat at home and worried about him. I couldn't forgive that. And no, cheating and sleeping around is not expected of you and if it was, why do it anyway considering all that time he professed his undying love for Lilka before and after the war? Asshole.
It's easy to sympathize with Lilka even before that revelation. She's the one who pushes to return to Warsaw because she wants to visit her old home before the war. She becomes disillusioned to discover Warsaw completely changed and rebuilt. Nearly everything she loved is gone. Reading her "awakening" and descent into another bitter person after being the only hopeful one is heartbreaking and I can't help but blame Jascha.
By the end it feels as if Edelman wrote this as a message to Warsaw and the Polish. A message of hurt demanding accountability. The only difficult part about that is that most people living during the era are gone or were small children who are in their 80s or 90s now. So who is left to apologize and take accountability? But perhaps the more important goal is that the message exists in this book for future readers and generations to take heed.
Both characters are in their 60s and its 40 years after the end of the war or maybe since they escaped seperately from Warsaw so its roughly early- to mid-80s.
Jascha, a famous novelist, has been invited back to Warsaw from London to give a reading but he hates Warsaw and the Polish he argues didn't help Polish-Jews in the 30s-40s. He's an extremely bitter character and oftentimes a jerk. But then again, wouldn't you be if you lived through what he did? I can forgive him his jerkiness until after he reunited with Lilka in London years after the war. He got famous very quickly with his debut novel and slept with countless women while Lilka sat at home and worried about him. I couldn't forgive that. And no, cheating and sleeping around is not expected of you and if it was, why do it anyway considering all that time he professed his undying love for Lilka before and after the war? Asshole.
It's easy to sympathize with Lilka even before that revelation. She's the one who pushes to return to Warsaw because she wants to visit her old home before the war. She becomes disillusioned to discover Warsaw completely changed and rebuilt. Nearly everything she loved is gone. Reading her "awakening" and descent into another bitter person after being the only hopeful one is heartbreaking and I can't help but blame Jascha.
By the end it feels as if Edelman wrote this as a message to Warsaw and the Polish. A message of hurt demanding accountability. The only difficult part about that is that most people living during the era are gone or were small children who are in their 80s or 90s now. So who is left to apologize and take accountability? But perhaps the more important goal is that the message exists in this book for future readers and generations to take heed.
December 16, 2018
Jascha and Lilka, two aging Holocaust survivors, return to Warsaw 40 years after the war. Lilka is excited to return to Warsaw, her only home, whereas Jascha is bitter and resentful. Jascha, now a famous writer, has been invited there to do a reading of his work. This slim book explores the emotions they go through on their journey and the days leading up to the reading. The prose is stark and simple. The book is written almost completely in dialogue. There are no chapters, just one big section.
There's not much of a cohesive plot. It's written in a very stream-of-consciousness way, as Jascha and Lilka reminisce and talk about their life during the war. It reminded me a lot of Avigdor Dagan's The Court Jesters, but I enjoyed The Train to Warsaw more. I also thought it was a lot more well-written. The characters are both horribly scarred by their experiences. Years later, Jascha still hates all the Poles (perhaps justifiably so), and Lilka feels homeless. It was a very realistic exploration of how Holocaust survivors might feel decades later.
This is only a minor detail, but it really jumped out at me: Lilka's mother often slept with Germans, and Jascha hates her for it. I thought that was so hypocritical of him. Doesn't everyone do unethical things in war, when their lives are at stake? Jascha does start off as a very brash, somewhat unlikable character. But as the story progresses and you learn more about his past, he becomes a lot more sympathetic and understandable.
The ending was quite depressing. (not that any other ending would have made sense, but still...) Lilka finally realizes Warsaw isn't the one she remembers, and questions why their city betrayed them. There are many books about the Holocaust, but very few about the survivors' lives after the war. The Train to Warsaw really illustrates these emotional wounds, and shows that even years later they still haven't healed. This book will stay with me for a long time to come.
There's not much of a cohesive plot. It's written in a very stream-of-consciousness way, as Jascha and Lilka reminisce and talk about their life during the war. It reminded me a lot of Avigdor Dagan's The Court Jesters, but I enjoyed The Train to Warsaw more. I also thought it was a lot more well-written. The characters are both horribly scarred by their experiences. Years later, Jascha still hates all the Poles (perhaps justifiably so), and Lilka feels homeless. It was a very realistic exploration of how Holocaust survivors might feel decades later.
This is only a minor detail, but it really jumped out at me: Lilka's mother often slept with Germans, and Jascha hates her for it. I thought that was so hypocritical of him. Doesn't everyone do unethical things in war, when their lives are at stake? Jascha does start off as a very brash, somewhat unlikable character. But as the story progresses and you learn more about his past, he becomes a lot more sympathetic and understandable.
The ending was quite depressing. (not that any other ending would have made sense, but still...) Lilka finally realizes Warsaw isn't the one she remembers, and questions why their city betrayed them. There are many books about the Holocaust, but very few about the survivors' lives after the war. The Train to Warsaw really illustrates these emotional wounds, and shows that even years later they still haven't healed. This book will stay with me for a long time to come.
April 19, 2021
I guess some of my complaints about this book mirror those that other reviewers presented. Generally, I was engaged and interested. Still, at times I balked a bit at the novel both stylistically and pertaining to storyline? The was no dialogue marks, making it mildly challenging at times to know who spoke which words. Also, no chapter breaks occurred. Rather, every paragraph indicated a break or transition of sorts. That would be okay, but the author frequently would have these paragraphs ending with quippy or pregnant with meaning ends. Stylistically, it got a little draining and trite.
But what truly got me 'over' the book was that the character Jascha was a complete heal. While both Lilka and Jascha were Holocaust survivors -- provoking sympathy and horror over their stories in equal measure -- Jascha's rampant infidelity and philandering almost took over, particularly about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through. At times it was as much of the story or a 'character' in itself as the city of Warsaw was, their 'love story,' or their tales of survival. I kept trying to figure, 'what does this contribute to this story? How does this help me understand the characters' relationship to each other or have more sympathy for them?' The unfaithfulness itself was not so much problematic in the storyline but, alas, I was left with no answers to those questions. It left me in a state of 'enough already!,' and wondering why Lilka stayed with this jerk (also, not answered)? (I mean... without reading it, I don't think I can convey how much of a FOCUS it was in the story at some point.) Perhaps if these answers were explored more, the story would have made more sense and this thread in the story would be more clearly meaningful.
But what truly got me 'over' the book was that the character Jascha was a complete heal. While both Lilka and Jascha were Holocaust survivors -- provoking sympathy and horror over their stories in equal measure -- Jascha's rampant infidelity and philandering almost took over, particularly about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through. At times it was as much of the story or a 'character' in itself as the city of Warsaw was, their 'love story,' or their tales of survival. I kept trying to figure, 'what does this contribute to this story? How does this help me understand the characters' relationship to each other or have more sympathy for them?' The unfaithfulness itself was not so much problematic in the storyline but, alas, I was left with no answers to those questions. It left me in a state of 'enough already!,' and wondering why Lilka stayed with this jerk (also, not answered)? (I mean... without reading it, I don't think I can convey how much of a FOCUS it was in the story at some point.) Perhaps if these answers were explored more, the story would have made more sense and this thread in the story would be more clearly meaningful.
June 11, 2020
Book- Train To Warsaw
Author- Gwen Edelman
Publisher- Grove Press
Genre- #HolocaustLiterature
My Rating- 3.75⭐
Train journeys have a literal and symbolic reference in Holocaust Literature. The anxiety of being called for transport, the restrictions, the sufferings during the journey, the demotion to the stature of cattle and worse later, the uncertainty of one's future all begins here. Very few times have I read of a train journey that leads to freedom, in Holocaust Literature. I think #TheLastTrainToIstanbul is the only one(of the books I have read) that takes its passengers to freedom.
#TrainToWarsaw is the story of a spirited couple one of whom is an acclaimed writer- Jascha. He met Lilka at the Warsaw ghetto and they fall in love. They escape separately from there and meet in London after many years, when Lilka working with a publisher, reads Jascha's deep, dark novel.
Jascha is invited to Warsaw as a native author, the irony of it!
Lilka jumps at the opportunity while Jascha is reluctant. As they embark on their train journey, the couple are reminded of their past. The confusion, the anxiety, the fear, the anger of being in Warsaw runs throughout the book which shuttles between the past and the present.
The relationship between the couple is portrayed beautifully; it is evident they are in love even now and bolster one another, while also not coddling each other.
The author has not punctuated the dialogues and sometimes we don't know if it's Jascha or Lilka speaking. It's weary to figure that out and takes away the pleasure and flow of reading. Is this the intended purpose?
Author- Gwen Edelman
Publisher- Grove Press
Genre- #HolocaustLiterature
My Rating- 3.75⭐
Train journeys have a literal and symbolic reference in Holocaust Literature. The anxiety of being called for transport, the restrictions, the sufferings during the journey, the demotion to the stature of cattle and worse later, the uncertainty of one's future all begins here. Very few times have I read of a train journey that leads to freedom, in Holocaust Literature. I think #TheLastTrainToIstanbul is the only one(of the books I have read) that takes its passengers to freedom.
#TrainToWarsaw is the story of a spirited couple one of whom is an acclaimed writer- Jascha. He met Lilka at the Warsaw ghetto and they fall in love. They escape separately from there and meet in London after many years, when Lilka working with a publisher, reads Jascha's deep, dark novel.
Jascha is invited to Warsaw as a native author, the irony of it!
Lilka jumps at the opportunity while Jascha is reluctant. As they embark on their train journey, the couple are reminded of their past. The confusion, the anxiety, the fear, the anger of being in Warsaw runs throughout the book which shuttles between the past and the present.
The relationship between the couple is portrayed beautifully; it is evident they are in love even now and bolster one another, while also not coddling each other.
The author has not punctuated the dialogues and sometimes we don't know if it's Jascha or Lilka speaking. It's weary to figure that out and takes away the pleasure and flow of reading. Is this the intended purpose?
July 1, 2023
The Train to Warsaw follows the journey of a married Jewish couple back to Warsaw, Poland 40 years after they escaped the Warsaw Ghetto at the height of the Holocaust. While Lilka wants to return to her home city and reflect on her time there, both before and during the war, Jascha is reluctant to return to the city where he has so many painful memories. This story is a retelling of their memories of the Ghetto and a revealing of many secrets they have never told each other.
While I have read lots of World War II historical fiction in the past, this is the first time I have read anything on the Warsaw Ghetto, which seems to be often overlooked in the grand scheme of the Holocaust. The insight into the conditions of the Ghetto and what the people inside this section of Warsaw went through is heartbreaking, and I appreciated this novel giving me some insight into what it may have been like. One main theme I took away from this book is how the pain of the past can change people and how something that was once so beautiful can be lost forever.
One thing I had to get used to while reading this book was the lack of quotation marks, the use of quotations from multiple people in the same paragraph, and the lack of chapters. I initially struggled to figure out who was speaking or if there was narration, but by the end I got used to this type of writing style and was able to follow the flow of the book more easily. Overall, I really loved this story and the characters, and I appreciated the education the book gave me through a fictional but realistic story.
While I have read lots of World War II historical fiction in the past, this is the first time I have read anything on the Warsaw Ghetto, which seems to be often overlooked in the grand scheme of the Holocaust. The insight into the conditions of the Ghetto and what the people inside this section of Warsaw went through is heartbreaking, and I appreciated this novel giving me some insight into what it may have been like. One main theme I took away from this book is how the pain of the past can change people and how something that was once so beautiful can be lost forever.
One thing I had to get used to while reading this book was the lack of quotation marks, the use of quotations from multiple people in the same paragraph, and the lack of chapters. I initially struggled to figure out who was speaking or if there was narration, but by the end I got used to this type of writing style and was able to follow the flow of the book more easily. Overall, I really loved this story and the characters, and I appreciated the education the book gave me through a fictional but realistic story.
June 7, 2018
Although the work is written in English, it gives very personal account relating to Polish history. I had a deep sense of betrayal, caused by being exposed to inhuman attitudes of some Polish towards Jews during II World War.
Now I can see clearly why Jews associate Auschwitz with Poland as a place, and why Polish political powers fight so wholeheartedly to explain to the rest of the world that place has nothing to do with creation of the concentration camps. It is my deep belief that also among Jews there were many people who took advantage of human misery for different reasons, some of them purely financial. In each bigger group of people you'll find representatives of "angels" and "demons."
The book is very precious, and I'm glad I've read it. It was for me first time that I learnt about this type of situations. I enjoyed fact that most of the book was written as a dialogue. It is a very good read, and I believe more Polish people of my generation should be exposed to those facts.
Now I can see clearly why Jews associate Auschwitz with Poland as a place, and why Polish political powers fight so wholeheartedly to explain to the rest of the world that place has nothing to do with creation of the concentration camps. It is my deep belief that also among Jews there were many people who took advantage of human misery for different reasons, some of them purely financial. In each bigger group of people you'll find representatives of "angels" and "demons."
The book is very precious, and I'm glad I've read it. It was for me first time that I learnt about this type of situations. I enjoyed fact that most of the book was written as a dialogue. It is a very good read, and I believe more Polish people of my generation should be exposed to those facts.
November 28, 2025
The style of writing for this book is so different from most I've read. It could be a hard book to read due to the topic but I really liked how she made this a one chapter book and several paragraphs per page. Bunches of thoughts in each paragraph. Stop and think of what she's telling us.
First thought when looking at the cover without reading anything is that they are going to the camps in Poland 1942. I'm ready to put the book back on the shelf at the library. We soon find out that it''s not the case but returning to Warsaw 40 years later. That's what makes me want to read it and see what they find.
The bleakness of the winter weather passing by as they are on the train sets more of the stage as they travel east from London. Quite a trip back in time for them and lessons learned from each other.
First thought when looking at the cover without reading anything is that they are going to the camps in Poland 1942. I'm ready to put the book back on the shelf at the library. We soon find out that it''s not the case but returning to Warsaw 40 years later. That's what makes me want to read it and see what they find.
The bleakness of the winter weather passing by as they are on the train sets more of the stage as they travel east from London. Quite a trip back in time for them and lessons learned from each other.
May 16, 2020
I picked up this years ago in a second hand shop, it has sat and collected dust, and waited for the right time to be read. Written in only dialogue, you feel as though you are the shadow beside the characters, the fly on the wall, as they struggle with their memories of the past, the one's they tried hard to forget, and others that should be remembered. This book isn't for everyone but it should not be forgotten.
February 2, 2018
It was okay. I thought it would be more about the holocaust than it was. It was mostly about the couple and a little background information on them. For a short book, it took me a few weeks to get through because it was slow. But, the spots that did talk about what it was like in the ghetto were powerful and I enjoyed learning about it.
June 13, 2018
An odd short book about a couple who both survived life in the Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi invasion of Poland. The couple travels to Warsaw 40 years later. During this trip, they reveal secrets they have kept from each other. I did not particularly like the main characters. The descriptions of their experiences are disturbing as expected of any novel about Holocaust survivors. I found it interesting that this book included descriptions of the Poles mistreatment of Jews and their collusion with the Germans, more than I've read in other books.
The writing was odd. There were no quotations to indicate conversations and no separate paragraphs to separate which character was speaking. It took some getting used to.
The writing was odd. There were no quotations to indicate conversations and no separate paragraphs to separate which character was speaking. It took some getting used to.
August 15, 2023
A likely story
What an interesting read.
It's a long conversation......nearly a play....between two people who were young adults in the Warsaw Ghetto and now are returning for a very short visit.
It was real and insightful and entirely possible.
It's the style, I think, that pleased me the most.
What an interesting read.
It's a long conversation......nearly a play....between two people who were young adults in the Warsaw Ghetto and now are returning for a very short visit.
It was real and insightful and entirely possible.
It's the style, I think, that pleased me the most.
February 7, 2018
I didn't find this book compelling. The writing can be annoying and simplistic. It seems to glide over HUGE issues and doesn't go in deep. It touches upon some of the worst atrocities ever committed but it lacks depth and feeling.
February 24, 2020
Interesting tale of a couple that goes back to Warsaw 40 years after WWII - but it's not the same, He know it will be that way but she doesn't want to believe it. All written in the 3rd person so hard to follow,
March 9, 2022
Un livre qui se lit comme un poème. vite lu, les deux personnages sont bien raconté et attachants malgré leur passé douloureux, ils sont plein d'humour et ce récit qui passe d'un dialogue de l'un à l'autre est atypique
January 20, 2024
Ogni anno si rinnova il ricordo della Shoah e tra i libri ho preso questo. È un libro straordinario sull'amore e gli orrori dell'Olocausto. Jascha e Lilka raccontano il loro doloroso e tormentato passato...
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