The Silence In Between by Josie Ferguson BLOG TOUR #TheSilenceInBetween @Inky_Josie @DoubledayUK @RandomTTours #BookReview

Imagine waking up and a wall has divided your city in two. Imagine that on the other side is your child...

Lisette is in hospital with her baby boy. The doctors tell her to go home and get some rest, that he’ll be fine.

When she awakes, everything has changed. Because overnight, on 13 August 1961, the border between East and West Berlin has closed, slicing the city - and the world - in two.

Lisette is trapped in the east, while her newborn baby is unreachable in the west. With the streets in chaos and armed guards ordered to shoot anyone who tries to cross, her situation is desperate.

Lisette's teenage daughter, Elly, has always struggled to understand the distance between herself and her mother. Both have lived for music, but while Elly hears notes surrounding every person she meets, for her mother - once a talented pianist - the music has gone silent.

Perhaps Elly can do something to bridge the gap between them. What begins as the flicker of an idea turns into a daring plan to escape East Berlin, find her baby brother, and bring him home....

Based on true stories, The Silence in Between is a page-turning, emotional epic that will stay with you long after you finish reading.

The Silence In Between by Josie Ferguson was published on 20 June 2024 by Doubleday. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour. 

I honestly believe that 2024 has been one of my best reading years to date. I've discovered some wonderful books by such talented authors and The Silence In Between is another one of those. It is a story that left me reeling at times, the emotional pull of this novel is astonishing. Not only does this author write beautifully, but she also clearly researches her subject with skill and compassion. This is a novel that has touched me deeply, and one that I will recommended for years to come. 

I love a dual timeline story and especially when it is quite recent history that is being written about, the two parts of the novel flow seamlessly together, both parts are so well executed, leaving the reader wanting so much more as one part finishes and we are taken back to the former. 

This is Lisette's story, it is also Berlin's story and the comparisons between a woman and a city are magnificent. The gradual downfall of Berlin and its people, along with Lisette's trauma from child to woman are matched perfectly. Berlin becomes a character in itself, that major city, filled with people living together quite happily that is turned into a ghetto where nobody is sure of anyone else, where homes are destroyed and neighbours are exiled. Alongside a girl who loves music, who is deeply in love and who becomes a mere shadow of herself. She experiences so many losses, so much grief, terror and pain. However both Lisette and Berlin survive, with enormous scars, and with more horror to come. 

The story begins in 1961 as the Berlin Wall is erected overnight. Lisette's baby son is in hospital in West Berlin, she went home to the East for some rest and collect some clothes. When she woke the next day, the wall was there. Lisette couldn't return to the West. Soldiers barred the way, with guns. Her baby was alone and Lisette was distraught. Her teenage daughter Elly cannot bear to see her mother in so much pain, their relationship has always been fraught, but Elly is determined that she will cross to the West and rescue her brother. 

We are then taken back to 1938. Lisette is a music loving teenager, with many friends and one special boy Julius who has taken her heart. It is clear that war is looming, with friends and neighbours wearing badges that depict their allegiance to H*tler and his army, and many of her Jewish neighbours disappearing, times are changing. 

What follows is an extraordinary story woven together with care and compassion. It certainly does the reader good to realise that ordinary German people were just that ... ordinary. They did not all support what was happening, and what their country was doing throughout Europe, and at home. We follow Lisette as she matures too quickly, as she and her mother wait patiently for their loved men to return home from the battlefields. As they barter for food, as they deal with suspected informers and then as they deal with what happens when Germany is defeated. 

This is an eye-opening story of recent history. The horrors that ordinary people faced both during the war, straight afterwards and then again in the 1960s and 1970s when the Wall was erected is shocking but perfectly portrayed. 

A story of a woman, and her family and a city that endured the worst that anyone could imagine.

An incredible story. Highly recommended by me. 

Born in Sweden, to a family of writers and readers, Josie Ferguson moved to Scotland when she was two. 

She returned to Sweden in her twenties, where she completed a vocational degree in Clinical Psychology (MSc). 

Upon graduating, she moved to London to pursue a career in publishing, something she had dreamed about since delving into fictional worlds as a child, hidden under the duvet with a torch.

She later moved to Asia in search of an adventure and a bit more sun and currently works as a freelance book editor in Singapore, where she lives with her husband and two young children. 

While training to become a clinical psychologist, Josie learned about the complexity of human nature, something she explores as a writer. 

She believes books about the past can change the future and she aspires to write as many as possible. 

The Silence in Between is her debut.

www.josieferguson.com

X @Inky_Josie

IG @josie_ferguson_author