Ann Griffin’s WWII novel focuses on aspects that most readers are unlikely to have heard before, and it offers a story of hope rather than despair. While Another Ocean to Cross starts in Germany, Griffin portrays a Jewish family that got out while it was still possible, hard and dangerous, but possible. The novel moves from Italy to Greece to Egypt to Britain and Canada as it tells Renata’s story of struggling to make a life against the backdrop of war, sometimes right in the midst of the bombings and death. Nothing on this journey is easy for the young woman and her family, but she is a determined, courageous hero who confronts her own failings and rises above them. Griffin does a good job of portraying life in exotic places like Alexandria, “A shabby, narrow street expanded into a large courtyard, off which spurted small alleys and alcoves crammed with stalls selling everything imaginable. Brilliant colors and the scents of nutmeg, tobacco, and coffee competed for attention with bleating donkeys, the gentle music of camel bells, and shouts of those hawking their wares. Renata looked around, dazzled.” Griffin develops a deep palette of characters we care about, even the minor ones, such as a nurse Renata meets at a particularly low point, “Heather had her hands around a huge mug of tea and was sitting in a corner, her duties caught up for now. Unaware of being observed, for a moment, her deep anguish and unbearable fatigue were exposed.” Taking on the grim subject of World War II, Griffin finds the heartening threads of family, love, resilience, art and faith.
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