My Long List of Impossible Things

Barker (The House of One Thousand Eyes) crafts an uneven survival narrative set in 1945 during the post-WWII Soviet occupation of Germany. When Soviet troops cast them from their farmstead, their widowed Mutti insists 16-year-old Katja and 18-year-old Hilde take 10 minutes to gather some belongings before they flee. The intelligent but impulsive narrator Katja must abandon her beloved piano and possibly her dreams of becoming a concert pianist. Barker creates a pervasive sense of danger as the family takes to the road with other German refugees in their own homeland; the loss endemic of war becomes reified for the sisters when soldiers execute Mutti after Katja calls them “savages.” After the duo arrives at the home of distant relatives, they must make themselves essential in order to stay. The narrative explores choices and consequences, but Katja’s consistent recklessness undermines her character arc. Though Barker’s writing frequently lacks the gravitas necessary to sensitively contextualize the hardships of Soviet postwar occupation against the horrors of the Holocaust, the novel succeeds in illuminating an oft-overlooked chapter of history, hopefully spurring readers toward more nuanced exploration. Ages 14–up. [em](Mar.) [/em]