Ten Green Bottles by Vivian Jeanette Kaplan
I picked up this book several years ago at a Toronto book store while I was visiting Canada on business. It seems to me I brought home a suitcase full of books written by Canadian authors, and Ten Green Bottles is one of my favorite books of all time.
I read it before I started writing book reviews online, but it remained on my shelf because I loved it so much. Recently I had some email correspondence with the author's agent and I decided it was time to read the book again and post a review.
Ten Green Bottles is the true story of an Austrian Jewish family who escaped from Nazi persecution in Vienna in 1939. The only country that would take them in was China. After a long ocean voyage, they land in Shanghai with nothing. Now they must learn to survive in a strange country also in the midst of a horrific war. The title Ten Green Bottles comes from a song sung by sailors in the bar Nini and Poldi run in order to support themselves. One by one the bottles fall from the wall until none are left. The song comes to represent Nini's personal struggles to adapt. She wonders when her last bottle will fall sending her into the final abyss.
I love the history of China and until I read Ten Green Bottles I knew nothing of this chapter of it. I was fascinated. The Jews escaped one horror in Europe only to find another waiting for them. The human will to survive is compelling.
Reading Ten Green Bottles again reinforced why it will stay on my list of favorites. I love it from a historic perspective and Kaplan does a beautiful job of making the story come to life on the page. With words she draws the reader into the carefree life of a child in Vienna, slowly changing the mood of the city as the Nazis take over. The shock of first impressions in Shanghai as Nini and her family disembark the ship that has brought them to what they believe is safety, crackles with electricity. I know Nini and Poldi. I laugh and cry with them. I walk alongside them through every joy and every hardship.
Ten Green Bottles is one family's story of a piece of history we should never forget. And this story is told in a way that will make sure we never do.
I picked up this book several years ago at a Toronto book store while I was visiting Canada on business. It seems to me I brought home a suitcase full of books written by Canadian authors, and Ten Green Bottles is one of my favorite books of all time.
I read it before I started writing book reviews online, but it remained on my shelf because I loved it so much. Recently I had some email correspondence with the author's agent and I decided it was time to read the book again and post a review.
Ten Green Bottles is the true story of an Austrian Jewish family who escaped from Nazi persecution in Vienna in 1939. The only country that would take them in was China. After a long ocean voyage, they land in Shanghai with nothing. Now they must learn to survive in a strange country also in the midst of a horrific war. The title Ten Green Bottles comes from a song sung by sailors in the bar Nini and Poldi run in order to support themselves. One by one the bottles fall from the wall until none are left. The song comes to represent Nini's personal struggles to adapt. She wonders when her last bottle will fall sending her into the final abyss.
I love the history of China and until I read Ten Green Bottles I knew nothing of this chapter of it. I was fascinated. The Jews escaped one horror in Europe only to find another waiting for them. The human will to survive is compelling.
Reading Ten Green Bottles again reinforced why it will stay on my list of favorites. I love it from a historic perspective and Kaplan does a beautiful job of making the story come to life on the page. With words she draws the reader into the carefree life of a child in Vienna, slowly changing the mood of the city as the Nazis take over. The shock of first impressions in Shanghai as Nini and her family disembark the ship that has brought them to what they believe is safety, crackles with electricity. I know Nini and Poldi. I laugh and cry with them. I walk alongside them through every joy and every hardship.
Ten Green Bottles is one family's story of a piece of history we should never forget. And this story is told in a way that will make sure we never do.
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