Susan Smith is forced to care for the children.
Jamie is open to everything including being loved. It’s Ada that knows nothing
about anything at all, especially loving or being loved.
While experiencing her own grief and loss, Susan
comes to love the children who are now orphans instead of evacuees. When Lady
Thorton arranges for Ada to have surgery on her foot, suddenly, while war rages
around them, Ada’s life is re-formed. But she is a work in progress. She moves
slowly from the ignorant, disabled child, to a bright, energetic girl, with a
thirst for knowledge and obvious potential.
Ada’s relationship with Ruth, a German-born Jewish
girl who comes to be tutored by Susan, proves to be her saving grace in more
ways than one. Their mutual love of horses and riding brings them together in
unexpected ways.
As war
brings out the best and worst in people, all the characters are tested. Forced
to compromise, show patience, and understanding, we see each character shuffle
their way through bigotry, acceptance and forgiveness, to love.
This story is full of emotional depth, mesmerising
dialogue, and transformative optimism. The prose is a calm lake; beautiful and
soothing, yet challenging with a mind of its own.
I didn’t know what to expect with this book, not
having read the previous one, The War
that Saved My Life. From the first page I knew it was what I look for in a
book; a superbly written and engaging read, with characters you can’t help but
love, even the less lovable ones. The
many underlying positive messages of compassion, and unconditional love, added
a glow to the story.
Additional themes appear: those of loss and grief,
human strengths and weaknesses, the pain children experience due to the lack of
love, and the lessons to be learnt by the young from older people, and vice
versa.
Title:
The War I Finally Won
Author:
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Publisher:
Text Publishing, $19.99
Publication
Date: October 2017
Format:
Paperback
ISBN:
9781925498851
For
ages: 12+
Type:
Young Adult Fiction
