My Long List of Impossible Things
What would you do to protect your family? Would you lie? Would you let another family die? Sixteen-year-old Katja finds herself wrestling with these and many other questions as the Soviet army forces her family out of their small farm at the end of World War II.
Katja has only known one home, her family’s farm in Germany. Throughout the war, Katja’s mother kept her head down and skillfully stretched the family’s resources on the farm. Even after her husband dies, Katja’s mother helps her two young daughters thrive despite their dangerous environment. When the soldiers arrive and force Katja, her sister Hilde, and their mother off their land, the family travels to Fahlhoff to stay with distant relatives.
As the family flees with thousands of other German refugees, Katja is shocked by the Soviets’ violence and anger toward them. During the war, Katja was sheltered by her family and encouraged to spend her time perfecting her classical piano skills. As she endures the horrors of the road, she slowly understands the scope of the conflict and the fate of her Jewish friends. This realization sends her on a path to make right her wrongs, but she learns too late that doing the right thing is often deadly for the ones she loves.
As Katja struggles to balance morality with survival, she is forced to make impossible choices. Through Katja’s and Hilde’s complex relationship and struggle to survive, the author poses impossible questions about complicity, self-preservation, and loyalty. I highly recommend this book to any teen or adult who wishes to understand what comes before, during, and after terrible violence.
