Now

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This is our story. ‘Haunting... dangerous and desperate, but also full of courage and hope.’ The Guardian

Morris Gleitzman - Wikipedia Morris Gleitzman - Wikipedia

I did read the ‘Once’ trilogy thinking it would not finish with ‘Now’. In the third book Zelda learns a few more stories of her grandfather’s time during the Holocaust, one of them being how he joined the Russian resistance in 1944 with his friend, Gabriek… So I was not surprised to learn of ‘After’, a fourth book to be released in 2012.

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and what he did after the war. I was really glad because holy shit, did that kid have some evil crap thrown at him in the first two books, so it was nice to see that Felix had managed to rise above the things that had happened to him (as much as anyone can) and had made a success of his life. And saw that just outside Melbourne a bushfire had started. Every available fire-fighting unit was being mobilised. Small towns were being told to evacuate. Because rarely had Australia experienced a bushfire this huge and unstoppable and destructive... Felix knows he hasn't faced anything like this before. He may not survive, but he's hoping he will. Maybe. Once’ begins with Felix at an orphanage. He knows he is hiding amongst Catholics because he is Jewish, and for some reason Hitler doesn’t like Jews. But Felix has no comprehension of the true scope of the war, or of how Hitler’s Europe has turned against the Jewish people. It’s only when he interprets a carrot miracle and decides to leave the convent in search of his parents that Felix sees the truth of what the world has become.

Now - Morris Gleitzman - Google Books

This book, though not bringing an onion cry, succeeded in making my eyes watery. That's Gleitzman for you. It's a collection of short stories I've been working on for the last year or so - as a kind of refresher course for the imagination after the long and exhausting (but I'm not complaining) process of writing a novel. Then I had a plan for me and Zelda. Pretend to be someone else. Find new parents. Be safe forever. Then the Nazis came.’ Along the way he sees the truth of the war. He watches people marching, and soldiers fighting. He comes across a burnt down farmhouse, and finds Zelda – a young girl whose parents have been killed. Felix takes Zelda with him, in search of his parents, and on the promise that they’ll find Zelda’s… even though Felix knows that’s not possible. And the more they wander, the more Felix dreads finding out what really happened to his parents… I decided to read this book because it popped up on my recommended list and the blurb was interesting so I thought I should give it a go. This book is written in the view of a young boy named Felix. The Nazi's killed his parents during World War II, and this book is all about how he copes without his parents. Felix lives with his best friend; Gabriek (also his guardian) in a secret little hideaway that no one can know about. One of my favourite quotes from this book was “He can do it any time he wants,' says Zelda, hugging me from the other side. 'Any time he sees a Nazi, he can just do a poo.”I loved this quote because it adds a little humour to this very serious, emotional book. Something new I learnt from this book is that your life is your OWN life and nobody can take over no matter what happens, everything has its own happy ending.Lewis, Tom (2009-08-17), " Once and Then, Morris Gleitzman. (Brief article, book review)", New Statesman, 138 (4962): 46(1), ISSN 1364-7431

Now - Penguin Books UK

When we meet her, Zelda is staying with her grandfather while her doctor parents are overseas on a mission. She is struggling to fit in the small country town, and struggling even more with the weight of her name. She has heard stories about Zelda, her grandfather’s brave friend who died during the war… she has always felt like she will never live up to her grandfather’s memory of the dead girl, or be as heroic as young Zelda was. Felix, despite all he has accomplished, has never really come to terms with original Zelda’s death and his failure to protect and save her. That is a heavy burden to carry around for almost 70 years. But now he finds himself confronted by another conflagration and a chance to protect and save another girl named Zelda who also means the world to him. It seems Felix has come full circle - but will he and Zelda both survive this time? I hold onto the padded post bag as tightly as I can. I might not be the biggest or toughest person in the world, but when I’m defending a precious birthday present I can be very determined.Now continues the other two books but just in the present. Felix is now 80 years old, a retired surgeon and also lives in Australia. He has a grand-daughter named after his best friend in the previous books, Zelda. The story mentions some spoilers for the past novels so I would say to read Once & Then before starting.