Winter Journey

First, the good news: the reader was excellent. She was able to bring to life Jewish, Polish, & Australian characters with just the right accents and inflections. Now, the bad news: there were a few too many coincidences for me with regard to the main character; and in the end I realized she would be a much older character than she seems throughout the novel. I do enjoy listening to novels that have some basis in history - so I would still recommend the book even though I found some flaws in the timeline.

I like this book. If it is indeed a true story, it is a remarkable story. It is well written and the characters and their circumstances are good.
It is not a mystery like most but the ending took me by suprise.
If there is anything missing, it is something that is missing from most books written about this black period. Soul searching.

Interesting book, based on a true story about a forensic dentist Halina Shore, from Austrailia, who because of her Polish background, is one of the people chosen to go on war crimes assignment to dig up a mass grave in a town in Poland. The village people are divided and and angry about this intrusion in their lives, because it might show that they, the Poles, were responsible for the 1,000 jews that were burned alive there, and not the Germans, as they claimed.
Digging up the mass grave, uncovers much more than the answer to the question about who dunnit, it uncovers truths about Halina's own life. Good story, a little confusing at times, with all the names and characters, but an overall a good book.
Deidre Rubenstein deserves an award for her performance reading this book. Her emotion and skill draw you in. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed reading this one as much as I did listening to it.

This is one of the best books I bought.
It is a true story and I can not agree with other poeple that this is over dramitized. I cound not stop listening!!
Very well written and it give a true reflection of human nature. The reader was excellent. She was able to bring to life Jewish, Polish, & Australian characters with just the right accents and inflections.

Winter Journey is beautifully written and takes the reader along on the journey of discovery. Though some of the story seems slightly contrived it will play on every emotion you have. The narrator tells the story well and is very committed to the story. Loved it!

Excellent writing, interesting subject matter and well researched actual events. Very moving.

First, the reader gets 5 stars. She was wonderful. The burning of the Jews in the barn was a very sad event and I am glad the author wrote a book about it. The world needs to know about it. However, while listening to the book, there were times that I just wanted to hit the fast forward button. Parts of the book were so melodramatic and half way into the book, you know the truth about the main character. The book would have been better with some abridgement. Also, parts of the book (not related to the burning) were unbelievable.

While I agree that the age of the main character did not jive with the timeline, the storytelling was strong and moving.

I'm not sure what time line the other reviewers were using but a little research shows Poland entering the European Union around 1990, which would make the main character around 50, not 70. While some people may be surprised that a woman could be involved in a romantic relationship at that age, I found it very refreshing and thought the entire story was very moving and interesting.

I too enjoyed the narrator and appreciated the recounting of this important story. I kept having to check historical events, as the protagonist mentions contemporary happenings, such as the Pope's visit to Poland. That made me place the age of the storyteller at 70 or more, much too old for some of the adventures and romantic interludes described. But maybe not? Or maybe it was written ten years ago, or more. Otherwise, a great book and narrator.