Publishers Weekly
★ 08/28/2023
In this searing historical novel set in 1939–1945 Romanian Czernowitz, Arnold (Red Hood) presents a deeply personal telling based on her grandmother’s experience living through the Holocaust. After her philandering father abandons the family, Jewish 13-year-old Frederieke Teitler, her mercurial older sister Astra, and their depressed and physically weak mother must rely on Reike’s fiercely kind maternal grandfather Opa, who is a jeweler, to survive. Opa has always acted as her stalwart guardian. But the approach of brewing unrest from neighboring Poland toward Czernowitz—long considered a safe haven for Jews—means that Reike must confront the idea that Opa may not be able to protect her from everything. As war breaks out throughout Europe, Reike struggles to manage relationships with her family and wonders what she’ll have to face to find peace. Arnold confronts tough subjects, including genocide, hunger, rape, and suicide, via unflinching depictions of war and compassionate renderings of intense familial drama. Even amid these somber topics, the author conveys hope and resilience through Reike’s persevering personality and her vulnerable relationships with Astra and Opa. Includes an author’s note, a history of Czernowitz, b&w archival photographs, and a reading list. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"This book is many things: an examination of love and duty, a revelatory account of a Holocaust experience many won’t know, and a wrenching coming-of-age story. A moving glimpse into a past that is an all-too-possible vision of our future.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Arnold confronts tough subjects via unflinching depictions of war and compassionate renderings of intense familial drama. Searing." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Arnold’s gripping novel of sisterhood and survival amid both Soviet and Nazi occupation illuminates a little-explored part of the Holocaust in Romania. A must-read.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
"Extraordinary. This beautifully written novel juxtaposes passages of transcendent insight with terrible loss. An excellent choice for readers of Monica Hesse and Ruta Sepetys, and a first purchase for all teen collections." — Booklist (starred review)
"Arnold’s compelling and well-researched narrative is deeply personal, respectful, and redemptive; through story, she bears witness. Her depiction of Rieke’s experiences allows readers to truly feel how the horrors of war give the character many reasons to hate as well as to discover her enormous capacity to love." — Horn Book (starred review)
"Each page of this extraordinary story teems with nerve-tingling, edge-of-your-seat anxiety. A riveting addition to the Holocaust-literature canon." — Jewish Book Council
“The Blood Years gives us tragically underrepresented history viewed through a lens of love. Devastating and beautiful.” — Ruta Sepetys, New York Times-bestselling author of I Must Betray You
"Ferocious and delicate, brilliant and emotional, The Blood Years is a finely wrought portrait of love and betrayal and what it costs to survive the unimaginable." — Nina LaCour, Michael L. Printz Award-winning author of We Are Okay
"Once you meet Reike, you won’t ever forget her. Elana K. Arnold entwines history irresistibly with fiction to tell a story of great magnitude and emotional impact, centered on the bravery of a Jewish teenager in Nazi-occupied Romania and on universally human questions of romantic love, moral compromise and family loyalty." — E. Lockhart, New York Times-bestselling author of We Were Liars
"A captivating, harrowing, uplifting story of a Romanian-Jewish teenager’s struggle not just to survive but also to live. By the time you reach the final page, each person in Rieke's family will feel like a member of your own. Emotionally stirring and ethically complex, this is Elana K. Arnold’s finest work to date.” — Dashka Slater, Stonewall Book Award-winning author of The 57 Bus
School Library Journal
★ 10/01/2023
Gr 9 Up—Arnold's gripping novel of sisterhood and survival amid both Soviet and Nazi occupation illuminates a little-explored part of the Holocaust in Romania, based on the life of the author's grandmother. Growing up in Czernowitz, Rieke Teitler's world revolves around dance lessons with her sister, Astra, and her grandfather's watch-repair shop. But in 1939, disaster strikes three times: Rieke develops tuberculosis, Astra falls in love with a much-older man, and Romania is caught up in WWII. As Rieke struggles to survive persecution and her worsening illness, she must also find her own path between the moral polarities of her grandfather and sister. Religious Opa wants to "build this world with love" in the face of hatred. By contrast, Astra insists "Sometimes we choose between bad, and worse." Arnold gives the characters and moral dilemmas breadth and depth. Astra's selfishness is sometimes pragmatic and life-affirming; her much-older husband is a philanderer and also a life-saving doctor. Later, a smuggler sexually abuses Rieke—but also gives her food that allows her family to survive. The truth is difficult, but as one character says, "knowing is better than not knowing." Rieke must learn to make choices and maintain her ability to love. The complex setting is another truth, expertly revealed. Arnold represents the full cultural complexity of Czernowitz, which has belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Romania, and modern Ukraine. A historical afterword includes photographs of Rieke and Astra's real-life counterparts. VERDICT Arnold's wrenching tale of two sisters surviving the Holocaust in Romania is a must-read.—Katherine Magyarody
NOVEMBER 2023 - AudioFile
Carlotta Brentan infuses this audio with all the emotional intensity it deserves. It recounts the childhood experiences of the author's grandmother, Rieke, in Holocaust-era Romania. Brentan's narration does full justice to the heroine's reactions to the complex personal and political upheavals she encountered. Brentan anchors us firmly in Rieke's feelings toward her family--her deep love for Opa, her beloved grandfather, and her impatience with her mother's many headaches and concerns about Astra, Rieke's elder sister. By the audio's end, this divided family unites against Jewish prejudice, the Russian invasion, and, finally, the horrors of Nazi brutality. Together, they prove Opa's belief that "we can love more persistently than they can hate." S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-07-31
There are millions of Holocaust stories. This is one you haven’t heard yet.
Acclaimed author Arnold leaves behind her metaphor-laden fantastical fare to tell the fictional tale of Frederieke Teitler, a Jewish girl whose life was inspired by that of the author’s grandmother Frieda Teitler during the Holocaust in then-Romanian Czernowitz, where nearly 40% of the population was Jewish. Painstakingly researched (the extensive backmatter details the blend of scholarship and family history) and sometimes painful to read, this book is many things: an examination of love and duty, a revelatory account of a Holocaust experience many won’t know, and a wrenching coming-of-age story. Rieke experiences hunger, illness, rape, and the loss of all she has known, yet somehow holds on to hope and love. The small and sometimes terrible complexities of familial drama play out against the vastness of the Holocaust. Rieke’s mother pines for her unfaithful husband; Astra, Rieke’s older sister, is the axis around which all things must turn, and someone Rieke adores beyond reason despite her chronic, careless malice, belied by sudden gestures of immense love. The rock amid this tumult is Opa, her grandfather, whose steady kindness and honor remain, even as the world around them descends into hate and violence.
A moving glimpse into a past that is an all-too-possible vision of our future. (foreword, timeline, author’s note, archival materials, reading list) (Historical fiction. 13-18)
