The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

by Louise Murphy

A poignant and suspenseful retelling of a classic fairy tale set in a war-torn world.

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. Louise Murphy's haunting novel of journey and survival, of redemption and memory, powerfully depicts how war is experienced by families and especially by children.

"Lyrical, haunting, unforgettable." --Kirkus Reviews

"No reader who picks up this inspiring novel will put it down until the final pages, in which redemption is not a fairy tale ending but a heartening message of hope." --Publishers Weekly

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Holocaust, World War II, Book Club, Historical, War

297 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2003

About the author

Born in 1943 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Louise Murphy began writing stories when she was five years old. An avid reader and prolific writer, she attended the University of Kentucky and taught English to middle-school students in Newark, Delaware, before moving to California in 1968. There, she raised her two children and received a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, where she taught for five years. She later taught novel writing at Acalanes Adult Education in Lafayette, California.

Murphy is the winner of a Writer’s Digest award for formal poetry. In 2003, she was awarded the Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award for her chapbook, Pilgrimage. Her writing and poetry has been published in numerous journals and magazines.

She lives in northern California, where she is working on another novel. Besides reading and writing, she enjoys playing the flute, opera, and classical music.

Reviews

[Mischenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please visit my blog www.readrantrockandroll.com for this review and others.

It's nearly the end of the Nazi occupation of Poland and a father must abandon his children near a forest so that they can search for safety from the Germans. On the journey they meet Magda, the so-called village witch. Magda is willing to risk her life and others to keep the children safe.

"The wheel turns. Blue above, green below, we wonder a long way, but love is what the cup of our soul contains when we leave the world and the flesh. This we will drink forever. I know. I am Magna. I am the witch."

Hansel and Gretel has been a favorite fairy tale since childhood. It was most definitely one of the scariest. The way the author has taken the fairy tale, re-imagined it, and paired it with the evil nightmare of WWII is fascinating. The story feels so authentic. It's incredible to me how the author has a way of keeping to the original story of Hansel and Gretel throughout, consistently hovering around elements true to the original fairy tale.

The story itself is dark and twisted and highlights the true evil doing against the Jewish, Gypsies, and dissidents during WWII. It was nothing like what I expected. I had an idea of the plot, but there's so much more to the story. Parts of the story were so hard to get through, but I loved the characters especially Magda, Nelka, Telek, Hansel and Gretel. Magna was surely my most prized character. The beautiful prose and specific elements reminded me of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, which is one of my favorite books of 2017.

There are discussion questions and an interview with the author at the conclusion which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not sure why it's listed as having 320 pages. My book has 297 plus a few more for interview and discussion.

This book is going down on my favorites list for 2017 and right now is number #1. I'm glad I picked it up.

5*****

[Wayne Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me say right out of the gate that this might possibly be the best book I have read all year. It is certainly making it to my 'favorites' shelf.

Every now and then I stumble upon a hidden gem, and this is one of those books. It wasn't on my to read list, nor had I ever even heard of it. I discovered it, of all places, in the book bin at Costco. Being a book lover, I can't help but stop and browse the books when shopping. Even when just intending to make a quick stop there, that just means I'll go past the book bin a little faster than usual. The book caught my attention, and after checking out the ratings for it on my trusty cell phone I saw that it was rated high and even had a couple of reviews from my friends. So, in my shopping cart it went and then to the bottom of my stack it went. That was several months ago, and now that I have finally gotten around to it, I must repeat what I said at the beginning, this might be the best book I have read all year. I always have a hard time picking favorites, but this book is certainly among the top 5.

Louis Murphy did a brilliant job in presenting a story that is beautiful, magical, and yet, at the same time, dramatically dark and about as disturbing as they come. This reads like a dark fantasy, but that dark fantasy is just a cover for what is really a horrific holocaust story.

This is one of those historical fiction pieces that brings you into the lives and experiences of those involved and brings, like a knife in the heart, the knowledge and idea of what some suffered during the terrible tragedies of war. And yet, like any great novel, it also reminds us of the compassion and love of our fellow human kind.

In one particular scene toward the end of the tale I found myself with tears in my eyes. Not just for the character involved, but because I know that this really happened and I never read it described quite this way. Yeah, it is one of those kind of books.

I don't know how I have never heard of this book but I would recommend it all my Goodread friends.

[Arah-Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caught between green earth and blue sky, only truth kept me sane, but now lies disturb my peace.  The story has been told over and over again by liars and it must be retold.  Do not struggle when the hook of a word pulls you into the air of truth and you cannot breathe.
For a little while I ask this of you.  Come with me.  


Once upon a time during the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland two Jewish children, eleven and seven, were left by their father and stepmother  at the roadside and told to hide in the woods.  The Nazis were in close pursuit.  Their stepmother  admonished the girl not to let others see her brother's penis.   She tells them they are no longer who they were, their names are now Hansel and Gretel and they must hide in the forest until all the motorcycles have passed and then look for a friendly farmer to feed them.    Then just like that their father and stepmother get back on their motorcycle and disappear.

In the retelling of this fairy tale Murphy adheres to the core elements of the original tale while accurately portraying a country and its people ravaged and shriveled by war and the atrocities visited upon them by their Nazi occupiers.  It is a very dark tale that does not gloss over the horrific violence and senseless cruelty suffered by the Polish people; men, women and children alike.  Be forewarned that there are some scenes, so graphic in nature as to evoke a visceral response from the reader.  I felt sick and shaken, struggling to swallow the lump in my throat and breathe through the congestion building within me unbidden.  

So yes it is dark, horrific and haunting.  But there is also love, sacrifice, tenderness, redemption and breathtaking beauty to be found here..  As Gretel leaves the house one morning after an ice storm, Murphy describes the child’s delight at the resultant beauty of the shimmering ice covered woods, dazzling like diamonds in the trees, evoking earlier memories of my own encounters with nature’s icy splendour. The beauty and wonder of this scene is quickly shattered by the events that happen next, just as that brutality and heartbreaking violence are offset by moments of pure joy, profound love and incredible sacrifice.   Hope still lives here.  It will not be snuffed out.  

There is much to love, and that love is what we are left with.  When the bombs stop dropping, and the camps fall back to earth and decay, and we are done killing each other, that is what we must hold.
The wheel turns.  Blue above, green below, we wander a long way, but love is what the cup of our soul contains when we leave the world and the flesh.  This we will drink forever.

My thanks to Wayne Barrett for bringing this retelling to my attention.  Read for yourself the review that inspired me to read this: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

it is dana's birthday!

and as a wonderful birthday present, i am setting aside the proust for a minute, and taking the time to write a dana-requested book review! and before you start thinking that i give shitty presents, here is something else i gave her for her birthday:



it's her crush paul o'neill!! with an erection!! oh, i am so thoughtful...

but this book - let's recover from the levity and put on our serious faces - although it draws from fairy tales and there is a sortof gauze of irreality permeating the story, there is some seriously disturbing violence here. i mean, these are nazis, their ovens aren't in gingerbread houses, and there isn't any way of tricking them into a death-scenario, because there are just too many of them. so this becomes, as the subtitle states, "a novel of war and survival." the focus is how to live within a world ravaged by horrors - first the soviet union, then the germans - poland was a collection of battered individuals, just trying to stay alive. and this is a chronicle of that time, with a superimposed fairy tale of two jewish children, abandoned in the forest by their father and stepmother, in the hopes that they will survive; "passing" as gentiles called "hansel" and "gretel." their story unfolds as the narrative splits to follow the father and stepmother, as well as various other characters impacted by the horrors of a war that doesn't yet know it is over.

this is my go-to book when people ask for ww2 books that aren't about spies. it's a book that isn't very well-known, but should be. and that's where i come in, with my "put down that michael chabon and read something haunting and unknown!!"

i don't want to give away any endings or emotions, so i can't really say much more. there are some upsetting scenes, here, but there is also a whole lot of beauty; a whole lot of tenacity and just enough "fairy tale" to lighten the psychological burden.

happy birthday, dana!

sheeesh, write a review for a girl, and she doesn't even notice.
maybe she is too busy with paul o'neill.....

come to my blog!

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

NO SPOILERS!!!

Look at the title of this book. It tells exactly what you will get from this book! Hansel and Gretel is a fairy tale, this is that fairy tale rewritten for adults. I had been warned by reading numerous reviews that this would be a dark tale. I had no idea it would be so very dark. Don't take my words lightly, I warned you! Some reviewers state that the evil is too gruesome, too overboard. I do not make this criticism. Why? Well, because as a child, when we are told fairy tales, we are petrified. Now this is a fairy tale for adults. Shouldn't we be truly scared? Shouldn't we be shocked? And yet it has all the ingredients of a fairy tale; there is evil and there is goodness. And how do fairy tales end? The very juxtaposition of the brutal, horrible evil next to the wonderful truly feels like a fairy tale. The author has fulfilled her goal perfectly!

I will give you and example of beauty and wonder alongside brutality and horror:

The sleet covering the forest had frozen into ice on everything she saw.

She walked toward the creek carrying the bucket. The snow was covered with a thick crust of ice that crackled under each footstep. Her foot sunk a few inches, but the snow was so frozen and her weight so slight that she walked over the deep snow as if she had on snow-shoes…..

Standing up, she broke off a twig from a limb and stared at it. The black of the twig was enclosed in a thick layer of transparent ice. She sucked it and the hardness of the ice grew even smoother in the warmth of her mouth. Every branch, every twig, was coated in a thin layer of pure; clear ice. The entire world was diamond-coated. There was an occasional rainbow high up in the trees or in the snow, a patch of color, the sun caught in the ice as in a prism. (43% of the book)

Gretel and her brother Hansel have lost their father and step-mother. They have found their witch in the Polish forests. They have escaped the Bialystok ghetto, but they are so hungry. They are so thin and cold. This is what is referred to when in the quote above where it is said she is "slight". When Hansel dropped the bread crumbs, in the hope that these crumbs would lead their parents back to them, these are not just any crumbs. These crumbs were their sole food. You feel all of this when you read the above sentences. The starving children and the beautiful, glorious forest after an ice storm are juxtaposed. It would be a spoiler if I were to tell you what happens after this glorious ice storm. All throughout the tale beauty and horror nudge each other.

All the historical facts of a biography about Polish children during WW2 are present: the Poles hatred of the Germans and their fear of the Russians. It is not only the Jews who are discriminated against; don't forget the plight of the gypsies. There are rebels hiding in the Bialowieza Forest. So this fairy tale for adults also gives a correct portrayal of Polish events.

The way the story is told, the words the author chooses makes you recognize the tone of a fairy tale. The children remain children, one minute twirling with the abandon of a child and the next revealing the imprint the war has left on them. This is a very moving, well told story. Just as most fairy tales have an important truth to tell; this one does too.

To determine if you should read this book, ask yourself if you really are up to an adult fairy tale……..

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a reader, I am well aware that I will not enjoy every single book I take a chance on and read, but in the case of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel I wrongly assumed I was on to something good. I mean, it's Hansel and Gretel, but told in a dark fashion. What's not to like?

As it turns out: ALL OF IT.

When I finish a book that is well below par, I like to write a review almost instantly while everything is fresh in my mind. In the case of this particular book, I will not be forgetting this book anytime soon, but for all of the wrong reasons entirely.

First off, apparently this is YA fiction, but I'd like to tell you all to keep your kids away from this. This book contained all of the things I dislike in 295 pages of sheer hell. I hate to say it, but this certainly is not literature, and I'm completely baffled as to how this got published in the first place.

The plot consisted of a seedy and grotesque concoction of perverts, murder in graphic detail, gang rape, and more oddly, an obsession with nipples big and small, throughout the book. The way in which these subjects were handled was written in kind of a shopping list format. There was no imagination or feeling, just the glaringly obvious fact that on the next page, I was going to read about another, erect nipple.

The story seemed to be a constant, bloody battle against women with no breather, or a sense of happiness anywhere on the horizon. It is solely driven by torture and rape. The characters were paper thin, and mental illness was thrown in it seems, but "just for good measure" as that didn't actually go anywhere. What is the point?

The writing style is totally average, and the word "Fuck" was used excessively, to the point where it has absolutely no effect whatsoever. I found myself skim reading some of this drivel towards the end. Frankly, I cannot begin tell you how much I've had to hold myself back from putting a match to this.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update 12/3/2016 - Still a wonderful book to teach. Students love it.

Many writers make use of fairy tale motifs in their writing. Murphy isn't even the first writer to make use of such motifs in a tale set during the Holocaust. Yolen's Briar Rose pre dates this.
Murphy's tale has all the power of Yolen's novel.

Murphy does not deal totally with central characters; in fact, she does not reveal the true names of four of her central characters. Instead she uses labels that become names. Even Hansel and Gretel are like this, for the names are the equivalent of John and Jane Doe. This suits the tale better than actually giving the real names to the central characters. In many cultures and tales, names are power. Knowing someone's name gives a person power over the other. By keeping the key family unit nameless, not only is Murphy making a statement about the universality of the experience, at least for a segment of the population, but the absence of the names keeps the reader and, strangely, the Nazis from having power over the central characters. Labeled and nameless, Hansel, Gretel, and their adults become independent.

Murphy makes good use of the rather horrific tale by manipulating the motifs. She makes a major change to how the oven is used,who the step-mother is, among others. But she keeps the core of the tale the same. It still is that story about two siblings working together instead of at each other throats. Like the source tale, Murphy switches the children's roles halfway the book. In the original, for instance, Gretel is weaker than Hansel at the beginning of the tale, but stronger towards the end. She saves him as he saved her at the beginning of the tale. Murphy does not overlook this key element of the tale.

Murphy's use of the oven is particularly powerfully poignant, for the actual fairy tale of H&GM was suppressed, along with other Grimm tales, after WWII. In the case of H&G it was primary the element of the oven that lead to its suppression. Today, such fairy tales are considered to "dangerous" for children because of the violence and the threat.

Murphy's book with be placed in that category as well. Despite its fairy tale structure, it is a harsh book. It is a truth that bad things happen to good people, especially in a time of war. Murphy does not mince words when describing what occurred. Tough, hard, wrenching choices are made. In particular is Murphy's use of the Stepmother and the abandoning of the children. The original story, critics believe, deals with parents having to abandon children during a time of famine, a historic reality. In Murphy's book, the children are "abandoned" so the adults can led the Nazi's away. The family is in flight, the adults willing to give themselves up for the children. It is a believable, heart breaking, and wonderful twist on the original.

Murphy's book also raises questions about choices, sacrifice, and right and wrong. It is a wonderful, sad, stirring book. I'm glad I read it.

[Ann Marie (Lit·Wit·Wine·Dine) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I read this book several years ago, it has stayed with me. I chose it as this week's Throwback Thursday pick. You can read my mini review as well as all my other revies on the blog.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a chilling book that took a few of the features of the familiar fairy tale and wove them into an incredible story of two Polish children hiding from the Nazis during the end of WWII. By no means a book for children, in this retelling, the author does not mince words and writes extremely graphic scenes depicting the cruelty of the Nazi officials. Nonetheless, the book manages to convey hope. All of the characters are complex and carefully drawn, and the book manages to follow the stories of the parents who have left their children in the woods, the family of the "witch" who takes in the children, and, of course, the children themselves. The competing stories make the book a page-turner.

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was on my summer reading list in early high school, and i brought my copy with me on a family trip to visit semi-distant relatives in the good ol' american south.

i failed to consider that said distant relatives, desperately searching for a way to make conversation with their 15 year old grand-niece / second cousin / nephew's step-sibling's neighbor by marriage, would ask time and time again what the book said family member was reading was about.

so, to these well-meaning basically-strangers, i had to say these words, time and again: "it's a retelling of hansel and gretel if hansel and gretel took place during the holocaust."

a real conversation ender.

regardless, i remember this as an excellent book, well-written and painful, creative enough to bring a new wave of emotion to a story most of us have heard many times over.

it was worth the social anxiety. and as an introvert whose ideal day includes zero conversations with people i don't know, that's saying a lot.

part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago

[Joy Kieffer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have you checked out your child's required reading list? DO IT! 11th Grade: The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy.

Not only is this required reading in our school district, it is in the YA section of our local library. Please note that the publisher recommends it for 18 and over. There is a reason, folks!

Ever wondered what happened to the real mother? Top of page two, "He buried his wife beside the road after the strafing, when she lay with her beautiful torso facing the sky, dress torn, nipples like dead eyes, unblinking."

My review:

Violent porn in the guise of a classic set in Nazi occupied Poland. Gang-Rape of Gretel in detail, graphic murder, repeated sex in front of the children, a nipple obsession throughout the book, another perverted scene too graphic to even list here, Hansel's lust for a pregnant and lactating mother-figure, etc. Sprinkled with obscenities throughout.

Telling students that these scenes will not be discussed, and yet talking about the "rest of the book" without addressing the glaring elephant in the room is akin to an incestuous uncle telling his victim not to tell. "I will rape and pervert your mind, but we won't mention it; we'll act like it never happened, and we'll talk about this book in such a way that you will see that it is acceptable and valued by adult society." THAT is the message these teachers and publishers are getting across to our kids by refusing to even mention the extent of violent and appalling content. I do not deny that the Holocaust was violent and that the practices of the Nazis were horrific, or that our children should be informed. I take issue with using sensuous and provocative passages to describe acts that are illegal and immoral. Glorifying evil in the name of art is deceit and brainwashing and puts this writer in the same category as the Nazis she claims to distain.

It is not literature by any stretch of the imagination. The writing not only doesn't soar, Louise Murphy is an opportunist with average skills. If you want to read about horrific child rape and have your values challenged, read Maya Angelou's personal account. This is a woman who has used her hurt to rise above the ordinary. While I feel that Ms. Angelo goes much too far in her descriptions in places, it is clear that she speaks from a place of justifiable personal rage. Ms. Murphy is simply using the combination of two horrifying elements, the Holocaust and Hansel and Gretel, and using them as a gimmick.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an extremely powerful but violent re=telling of a fairy tale. Very intense book about World War ll and two Jewish children running through the woods for their lives and the old woman, Magda, that they villagers called a witch but who risked her life to help the children survive.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reader finds out right away that this novel is set in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, and that the main characters are Jewish. So the reader has to be prepared for some cruelty. Still, the level, weirdness and frequency of the cruelty in this novel seems egregious to me. And some of the characters don't seem believable -- almost to the point of being cartoonish in one case.
Perhaps when it comes to the Holocaust, it's better to stick to nonfiction. A couple of fine examples are "Night" by Elie Wiesel and "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom.

[Davyne DeSye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I just finished this book – well, not just… I’ve spent about half an hour just staring into space, trying to process – and I’ll say it again: Wow. Not an excited wow. Not a happy wow. It’s more “I’ll never be the same person after reading this book” wow.

I’ll start by saying I absolutely love fairy tale retellings. It’s what made me pick up this book – how could I resist the title? Then I read the blurb. Hmm. Set in Poland during the Nazi occupation. Yikes. I tend to shy away from these books – not because I don’t think the topic is an important one, but because I’m one hell of an emotional person, and I end up being shredded by the stories. In the end, the fairy tale retelling won out. I had to know the “true” story behind this fairy tale.

This book was amazing. Yes, full of pain and the unfairness of life, and yet also so full of courage and love. I refuse to put anything in this review that could even begin to be considered a spoiler but I will say that this is the story of two children, Hansel and Gretel, and the witch, Magda, on whose doorstep they arrive. The story-telling drew me in… so much so that it kept me from doing several things I should have been doing today: I had to finish this book.

I feel a little battered and bruised, and yet somehow uplifted. If you could see my face, I’d be smiling, although the smile might seem a little melancholic. I will forever retain some of the images from this book and am so grateful that it ended with hope and love.

I usually only give books five stars when I think I might read them again. I don’t think I will read this one again – I’m not sure I would choose to make that journey twice – but, in my opinion, it was so well done, it gets five stars anyway.

[Lynn H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am truly at a loss for words as to how much I adored this book. Yes, it’s another book taking place during World War II but it can’t be defined by that. It is a story of love and compassion, putting your life at risk for others, and the struggle to survive. Unlike other holocaust books I’ve read, this one takes place in a small village in Poland and the surrounding woods and fields. A Jewish family escapes the ghetto and separates in order to try and survive. The children’s names are changed to Hansel and Gretel to try to be accepted if they are found, and of course they are…..by a little old Gypsy woman named Magda. The story follows their life with Magda as well as the life of their father and stepmother who left them at the edge of the woods so as not to be caught by the soldiers chasing them. There are other characters intertwined as well, and most will tug at your heart strings.

The writing is absolutely fabulous. There is one scene that takes place in a concentration camp, a horrific place, yet it was beautifully done. As odd as this will sound, I think it was my favorite part of the book. Obviously not because of what took place, but because of the way it was written – so full of love and compassion. It will stay with me for a long time.

Another piece that will stay with me is Greta’s description of the Milky Way……”All those stars in that big streak that goes over the whole sky? You see them? Those are all the Jews who’ve died. All of them died and went up in the air, and the stars are the stars that they wore on their coats. The stars on the coats come off when their souls float up and the stars live up in the sky forever.” And when disturbed by a shooting star falling, Hansel says ”They aren’t falling. They’re going down to meet other people that are going up.” Just beautiful.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The tale is told truthfully, and truth is no heavier, no more beautiful than lies.”

You might think, upon learning that this Hansel and Gretel retelling is set in Poland during WWII, that using a fairytale within such a setting would cheapen the real-life horrors endured or somehow romanticize it all.

You would be mistaken.

The author doesn’t sugarcoat anything, which is what makes this so grim and powerful. It’s a terrible story based on a terrible reality and this book doesn’t spare you the gory details or comfort you with flowery lies. Yet, as awful as it all is, it likely still fails to capture just how horrific that reality was. I’m inclined to believe it comes pretty close, though.

I liked this book for all it laid bare. It forced me into an uncomfortable place and continued to tighten the walls around that enclosed space, making it harder to breathe; harder to feel anything but the pressure of such utter despair.

I found it impressive that the author managed to stay true to the fairytale’s general path while remaining historical, rather than magical. The way she stitched this aspect in was creative, intriguing, and heart-wrenching. It has changed the way I will perceive Hansel and Gretel for the rest of my life.

While you may need piles of chocolate by your side while you read this, or a palate cleanser to lighten all that’s so difficult to process, knowing so many truly lived it, I don’t think this is a story anyone should pass by. It’s a magnificent blend of talent and research that doesn’t let us forget humanity’s worst, but also shows us humanity’s best.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

[Regina the Constant Reader]

Library Book -DNF’d @56%

This book is a fictional account about the horrors and atrocities women and children went through during WWII and I just couldn’t finish it. Absolutely heartbreaking.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a story about survival. Two Jewish children are forced into the woods in Poland by their father and step-mother in an attempt to save their lives during WWII. In order to make their names sound less Jewish, the children are told their new names will be Hansel and Gretel like the great fairy tale.

This is not a fairy tale. Hansel and Gretel witness and are subject to the terrors, cruelty, starvation and brutality of the Nazi occupation of Poland. Yes, this is fiction, but let us not forget that, at its' very core, every story about WWII holds some truth. Real stories about not only the Jewish, but the Polish and the Russians and everyone else that got in the way of the Nazis.

Yet, with all the cruelty and rawness of this story, there is also beauty and love. There is the old woman named Magda who takes two starving children into her home at the risk of being killed by Nazis occupying her village. There is Telek who shows Hansel and Gretel the beauty of nature. There is Nelka who cares for the children like her own children.

So, if you are looking for a light and fluffy re-telling of Hansel and Gretel, this is not the book for you. If you want to read a well written story of survival and love during one of the worst wars in history, don't miss reading The True Story of Hansel and Gretel.

[Shawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Under "Bookshelf" options, there should be an option entitled "Done", as in "I've had it". Were there such a choice, I would have selected it instead of the rather misleading "Read", which suggests that I in fact finished this dreadful novel. I did not. I gave it one star only because, like a "Done" button, the "Star" options are sorely lacking the ability to take stars away. There should be a way to remove stars from future novels by authors of horrendous books that deserve not only no star, but negative stars..., Stars in Arrears as it were.
I could not bring myself to continue past 95 pages. I tried, Lord knows I did, but chapter after chapter only proved to confirm my feeling that continuing this novel would be a tremendous waste of time.
There have been very few books that I started and gave up on. One, the title of which I had surgically removed from my memory, I got up from in the middle of and threw it in the trash. I didn't want to risk it getting into the hands of anyone else. "Hansel and Gretel" didn't push Me to that measure, primarily because I couldn't be bothered to walk to the trash bin and deposit it there -- An accurate reflection of my attitude about this novel -- I just didn't care.

[Joy · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, I opened the book to a random page and was immediately immersed in the most brutal horrifying child mutilation I could stomach. This was for book club or would have promptly shelved it - with hope of washing the excerpt from my mind forever. However, starting from the beginning and enduring through, I realized this is becoming a bad taste in my mouth where I was left with the hope that in time it would finally become more palatable. . .

This was a HUGE 180 from my most recent WWII non-fiction, the 5 book series Children of the Promise by Dean Hughes, of which I highly recommend if you are in need of something redeeming.

[Taury · Rating 3 out of 5]

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy is a reimagining of the fairy tale, WW2 in Nazi-occupied Poland. Hansel and Gretel are renamed German names as they are abandoned in the woods by their father and stepmother in an attempt to save them from the Nazis. Magda (the witch) finds them. She is the one who protects them and helps the children survive. The novel goes in the Holocaust and the Nazi soldiers as told under the constant threat of being caught in the war. The personal impact of war is great. No different for these children who lost their parents, trying to survive and hungry due to rations and the scarcity of food. The story was okay. More about WW2 and less of the children. It was very slow moving. It brought out emotions due to the children being more personalized. I feel like a fairy tale I knew as a child has completely been defiled. 2.5 rounded up to 3 ✨

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel boils down to a pair of siblings, abandoned in the woods by their parents in the face of imminent starvation, who are seemingly rescued by a witch. But when the children find that the witch’s kind meals are to fatten them up so they can be cooked in her oven, they trick the witch into cooking herself in their places.

Of course there are other elements that are probably just as essential in some people’s retelling: breadcrumb paths that get eaten by birds, gingerbread houses, bones held out instead of fingers. It’s a fairytale, and different storytellers like some parts more than others. New storytellers might even invent another episode. I’m cool with that.

What annoys me about this reinterpretation then?

1. The author’s insistence on calling the children’s stepmother “The Stepmother.” Less irritating was occasionally calling Magda, “The Witch.” Was the idea here that people couldn’t figure out that it was a retelling of Hansel and Gretel (despite calling those characters “Hansel” and “Gretel” the whole time) unless core characters retained their simple descriptions instead of names?
2. The way the story uses mental illness to retain some semblance of an antagonism between the witch and the children. Especially since it goes nowhere. The claim that the witch tried to kill them would be interesting if it resulted in a consequence for any of the characters. As it is, whatever the children believe about the witch is irrelevant because THERE ARE PSYCHO NAZIS and all plots are derailed when they show up.
3. The elements of the Grimm fairytale seem pasted onto another story. The breadcrumbs here are pointless. Arguably, the oven episode has no point except to put flares on the idea that the Nazi ovens were crematoriums.
4. The title and its implication that starving children in the woods are less true when they’re starving from being poor rather than from being Jews, escaping from Nazis.
5. There’s no meta awareness of the Hansel and Gretel story. This one is much more subjective than the last four, and the story could have worked without it but it seemed like it should have been there since their names came when “their Stepmother shook loose an old memory.”

My list of annoyances could possibly have been overcome had I enjoyed any part of the book. Unfortunately the entire book is filled with death and violence against women with almost no lighter moments to balance the horror. The characters are only a step past the cardboard fairy tale figures. The father loves his family and machines, but is willing to kill to survive and get revenge. Gretel is resourceful except when she’s crazy, in which case she is simply crazy. The witch loves her family and hates Nazis. The Nazi Oberfuhrer believes he is the Chalice who will bring culture to Europe, but he’s actually a brutal murderer. (In this case the character is not only shallow, but also somewhat unsurprising. Would that Indiana Jones would rush in to battle him!)

To cap it all off, I didn’t even like the writing. The narrator states things that should have been described: “Magda began to be happy” or “It made the Stepmother happy, and she smiled, her lips opening slightly and moving against the snow.” Call me old-fashioned, but a narrator should never need to state that someone is happy. A reviewer, however, may state emotions all she wants: I am very unhappy that I read this book.

[Nowrin Samrina Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buddy reads with my angry blue love Fahriaaaaaaal💙💙
সুন্দর
খুব সুন্দর
তারপর আসে,
ভয়ংকর সুন্দর💜💜
spoiler alert!!!
Magda I am gonna miss you...
I Don't know why hansel and Gretel Didn't meet with Nelka and Telek😭😭😭

[Teresa]

I'm generally a sucker for fairy-tale retellings, but while the description of the setting evokes both a place out of time and a Polish village during the Nazi occupation, the prose is too erratic. I read on after being encouraged by a sublime passage of the young girl's reaction to trauma, even continued after the prose almost immediately turned cringe-worthy for another scene. But what stopped me completely in my tracks (around page 170) was a plot contrivance that made no sense as to the character of the Oberfuhrer.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

To date, this is the best retelling of a fairy tale that I have ever read, and I've read a couple of very good ones. The author takes the story of Hansel and Gretel and sets it against the events of World War II and the Holocaust, and it's just brilliantly done.

It starts very briefly with the witch, who is not really a witch. She's a woman of Gypsy blood, but the villagers call her a witch. Then we're introduced to Hansel and Gretel, whose names aren't really Hansel and Gretel. They are two Jewish children fleeing the Nazis with their father and their stepmother, and they're left in the dark forest and renamed Hansel and Gretel by their stepmother in order to save their lives. The forest is an actual forest in Poland, very old, dark, deep, and mysterious. The witch's cottage is actually a hut, and inside is a baker's stove and oven.

The biggest difference between the fairy tale and this novel is that the witch has no ill intentions toward the children whatsoever. She takes them in, cares for them, and protects them in whatever ways she can, in such a way that you could almost forget the original tale and how it went. Almost.

There are scenes that will recall you to the events in the fairy tale in an almost revelatory and surprising way. I've actually smiled a few times to see the author's rendition of a familiar story, despite the horrors described.

And yes, there are horrors. A lot of them.

Hansel and Gretel, the fairy tale, is in itself a rather horrific tale, starting with the parent's abandonment, continuing with the witch's terrorizing the children, and ending with the witch's fiery fate. This novel is no different and in fact might even be more horrific because the deeds done in the book are based on reality.

But, like the fairy tale, the story is told in such a matter-of-fact and almost detached sort of way that it seems unreal, like ... well ... a fairy tale. The author uses a omniscient point of view with regular head hopping, which actually works incredibly well because the reader isn't too close to any one character and no one character can see most or all of what happens in the book. Scenes are described almost with no emotion whatsoever, which somehow makes them even more powerfully evocative.

In fact, I found some chapters very difficult to read because of the emotions they wrung from me, like the chapter in which a character named Telek must do his duty to save some of the villagers' children from being taken away. I had to grip my head and rock myself for comfort as I read.

I would rather not write much more about the book as I'd like people to discover the story themselves, so I'll end with this:

This book is a definite keeper.

Finished reading May 10, 2008.

[Jordan Quinto · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was fantastic. What a magical horrifying journey. It's so sad, so scary. The history behind this book is so terrifying.. children fighting for survival, hiding, starving, running, freezing, pretending, facing unimaginable horrors. forced into growing up ahead of their time, developing incredible courage and strength- this book is a perfect mix of fantasy and reality, it will really touch your spirit. I recommend it, but warn that it is dark and depressing at times.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing storytelling! A gripping account from a very human side of the attrocities committed against humans during the Holocost. The strength of those trying to survive is amazing. At times an emotionally difficult read but one I found hard to put down. I really liked how this story had remnants of the fairy tale but in a very different way, a more believable story in an unbelievable time in history.

[☮Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Normally I would be turned off a bit by the obvious comparisons in the book to the Grimm’s fairy tale, with the stepmother turning the children out into the forest, Hansel leaving bread crumbs along the trails, and the cottage with bread attached to it perhaps meant to lure hungry children. These writing ploys usually make me wonder if the author has any original thoughts. But very quickly Murphy turned me around and I was converted. Instead of an evil witch in the cottage, Magda turned out to be a grandmother figure with a heart. The stepmother was not what we originally would think. And this very creative, captivating story went on to teach us about the suffering in Eastern Poland when both Germany and Russia were there at the end of WWII.

Paraphrasing one of my favorite lines, the Germans were the dogs who came to ravage Poland, and the Russians were the bears needed to get rid of the dogs; but then how to get rid of the bears once the dogs are gone?

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Caught between green earth and blue sky, only truth kept me sane, but now lies disturb my peace. The story has been told over and over by liars and must be retold."

And so begins the rough story of Hansel and Gretel, told by the witch in the woods who saved them. I appreciated the adds to the story that made you see the underlying pieces of the lies - the oven, the food house and others. It added a little light and humor to such a dark story. And this IS a dark story. About two children sent out by their father and stepmother as they flee the Nazis.

I loved the old woman and her power and ability to see through everyone. I also really appreciated the second story as we knew what was going on with the dad and stepmother. The story was rough in places and at times, but it's a good story and one I'm glad I read.

[Fahrial ImRose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buddyreads with Lily💜

Does the witch always cooks the children in the oven?Maybe,maybe sometimes the witch ends up in a oven for the sake of the children! Yes,for the sake of The Children!


দ্বিতীয় বিশ্বযুদ্ধ নিয়ে বেশ কয়েকটা লেখাই পড়া হয়েছে,কিন্তু প্রতিবার ই যেন বিভীষিকাগুলো নতুনভাবে নতুন আঙ্গিকে চোখের সামনে আসে!
ভাবতেই অবাক লাগে এইসব অত্যাচার,অমানুষিকতাগুলো কোন লেখকের মনের বাঁধনছাড়া কল্পনা ফসল না,সত্যিই এসব কিছু মানুষদের সয়ে নিতে হয়েছিল।কিন্তু এর থেকেও অবাক করা ব্যাপার এত কিছু সয়েও, এত কদর্যতার মধ্যেও আশা এবং ভালবাসা ঠিকই উঁকিঝুঁকি মেরেছিল।এই দুইকে সম্বল করে একটি একটি দিন-মাস-বছর পার করে একটি যুদ্ধ পরবর্তী পৃথিবীতে পা রাখতে পেরেছিল!

"When the bombs stop dropping, and the camps fall back to the earth and decay, and we are done killing each other, that is what we must hold. We can never let the world take our memories of love away, and if there are no memories, we must invent love all over again."