Book Review: The Girl From The Train

Summary: Six-year-old Gretl Schmidt is on a train bound for Auschwitz. Jakób Kowalski is planting a bomb on the tracks.
  As World War II draws to a close, Jakób fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They mean to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretl’s unscheduled train reaches the bomb first.
   Gretl is the only survivor. Though spared from the concentration camp, the orphaned German Jew finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. When Jakób discovers her, guilt and fatherly compassion prompt him to take her home. For three years, the young man and little girl form a bond over the secrets they must hide from his Catholic family.
   But she can’t stay with him forever. Jakób sends Gretl to South Africa, where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant families—so long as Gretl’s Jewish roots, Catholic education, and connections to communist Poland are never discovered.
   Separated by continents, politics, religion, language, and years, Jakób and Gretl will likely never see each other again. But the events they have both survived and their belief that the human spirit can triumph over the ravages of war have formed a bond of love that no circumstances can overcome.

Thoughts: I don't normally like romances (too mushy), or World War 2 fiction (made-up tragedy for an already tragic time period = too much sadness), I made an accepting for this amazing story. I loved it so much!
 I was first interested in the book because of the premise,  small orphaned girl being taken care of by a big, tough army guy...my kind of story. And I wasn't disappointed, the two main characters were great but the supporting cast was amazing too. Even those few people that were only in for a few pages were so full of life and character!
  The plot was really good too, it's set in an area we don't hear a lot about during World War 2, Poland and then South Africa. And while the story was at the tail end of the actual war, the end results and consequences are still being dealt with at the end of the book. I was pleasantly surprised by how much Christianity featured in the story, I didn't even realized how prevalent faith and religion were to the plot until I started reading it. It was so great to see the historical background of the different views plus the contrast between Catholicism and Protestant beliefs. 
  The writing was key to everything, Joubert weaves seamlessly between the tragic horror of the war and the simple everyday life of a growing girl. She even had me really caring about the romance and I'm not ashamed to say I got teary eyed at the end of the book!

Content: War violence first off. Joubert never gets too graphic but people do die in here and there's mentions of the Auschwitz camp and ghettos that the Jews were kept in. There's some over-done descriptions on passionate kisses and SPOILER a couple with a thirteen year age difference END SPOILER. 
 Overall, while the war setting and mature way of writing might be a bit much for some younger readers, it's a clean book overall and I highly suggest it for anyone looking for a good historical read!