Book Review: The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W by Cate Green

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

As the novel begins, we meet Dinora “Nora” Wojnaswki eighteen days away from becoming the oldest person in the world at 122 years and 165 days – a world record that her immediate family plans to celebrate with much pomp and show despite Nora’s unwillingness. Nora’s great-granddaughter Deborah “Debs” Levene (née Wojnawski) is the one tasked with making all the arrangements for the celebration to be attended with family coming in from all over the world – a mammoth task in itself without her family members making things even more difficult with their travel plans, food preferences, internal feuds and much more.

Nora decides to leave the care home of her own volition and moves into the home of her caregiver Arifa Hashmi, a Syrian refugee who fled her war-torn homeland in the wake of devastating tragedy. Arifa lives with her sixteen-year-old son Naser, who misses his home and the people they have left behind. Nora is a Holocaust survivor from Lodz who refuses to talk about her experiences, choosing to revisit her memories alone in her room at the assisted living facility where she currently resides. She does not want a celebration but would rather live peacefully with her memories, but her family isn’t one to listen and Nora’s antics have them concerned, upset and wary of what might come next. They also don’t hesitate to express their suspicions about Arifa and question her motives for her part in Nora’s rebellious behavior. But Nora knows what she wants and her family and Arifa have no other option but to follow her around as she celebrates her survival and a life well- lived in her very own way, revisiting moments and places from the life she and her late husband made for themselves in London’s East End.

The Curious Kidnapping of Nora W by Cate Green is a beautiful story that revolves around themes of family, war, loss, trauma, survival, healing, motherhood and family. Presented to us from the perspectives of Deb, Arifa and Nora, the narrative follows these characters over the eighteen days preceding Nora’s special day. This is not WWII fiction in the true sense of the term but rather focuses on survival and the scars that the horrors of war and loss leave in the lives of those who live through it and the generations that come after them. I loved the evolving friendship between Nora and Arifa- the empathy, respect and understanding they show for one another and well as how her interactions with them enable Debs to gain perspective on her own life, motherhood and the struggles both Nora and Arifa have faced to build new lives for themselves, generations apart and from different parts of the world. I enjoyed the dynamics between the members of Nora’s family and thought that the depiction of bias and how preconceived notions often cloud our judgment of others is handled with much sensitivity. The author writes with insight and compassion, with several light-hearted moments woven into the narrative making for an incredibly moving and enjoyable read.

DO read the beautifully-penned Author’s Note wherein the author shares the people and places that inspired this story and much more.

Many thanks to HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter for the much–appreciated digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.