DNF @ p. 14. The beginning is too erratic for my tastes. I don’t know who anyone is, when it is, and the whole opening just feels jarring, jumping around like it does. Just not my cup of tea.

I got about a quarter of the way through this book, but it just wasn’t for me. The portion I read just moved very slowly and I had a hard time focusing on it. I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to read this, but I couldn’t get through it. It seems many other readers have really enjoyed it though!! I will not be posting a review on social media unless requested - but I feel since I didn’t finish it, it isn’t fair to leave a review.

A beautifully written book of a polish woman, her family and the horrific time of war. It was captivating and I could not put it down.

This book was absorbing and tense and moving. I am a sucker for the World War II genre. With echoes of Kristin Hannah's "The Nightingale," and Anthony Doerr's "All The Light We Cannot See," this is a novel that will haunt you. I recommend going in with as little knowledge of the book as possible. The ending will have your heart singing and your face undoubtedly wet with tears.

THE GOOD:

Young Lena was a joyful spirit. More of that version of her in the book would have been wonderful.

The mastery in the novel, I suppose, was the drifting back and forth between a memory and current state, almost whim-like. That, and revealing another frighteningly sad chapter of World War II.

THE BAD:

Scattered, sometimes confusing, often wasn't clear to me what was "real time" and what was a memory being relived.

Lena turns out to be opportunistic, which is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, given the extremely poor living conditions. She makes a choice that turns out to be very devastating later on, but it didn't have the emotional impact it should have, for me anyway.

THE CONCLUSION:

Feels like a Russian novel - very long, obtuse, and you're wondering what is the point of it all.

Rating and reviewing this book is a struggle.

The overall story was good, but the transition from one time period to another was confusing. This book should have been a favorite for me, but it was not due to the way the story was told. There were trivial events that the author covered in minute detail and major events that had no detail when we needed it. I wanted to stop reading but I could not. Then the book just ended.

With a unique format, this marvelous book swept me into the intimate life story of Lena Sadowska beginning with her teen years. Lena is a smart, determined young woman set on becoming a doctor. Tragically, her parents decide that marriage to a Polish military officer shall be her fate. Lena doesn’t hide the fact that she does not love her husband and is pleased when the outbreak of war forces her and her baby to leave him and return home to her parents. Soon after, the Soviets take over her Polish village and send Lena and her family to a Siberian work camp where human survival is rare.

Lichtardowicz presents this story with an unusual twist. Elderly Lena, who is dying, tells the story of her life. Chapters alternate between the present and her memories of the past. The story itself is riveting, but the flashback format adds great depth.

With expert characterization, Lena’s voice is loud and clear. The reader feels her passions and pain and mourns her losses and unfulfilled dreams. All the other significant characters in this story figuratively come alive.

This is a book which you walk into and come out of—with lingering thoughts and feelings.

This is the story of a women's survival during some of the darkest days in Eastern European history. Ultimately this story is heart breaking, and generally I enjoyed it.

I want to start in my critique by saying that this start slow. It takes a while for the story to set and get moving. Lena's accident is never elaborated on, it happens and then she is married off to Anton for her "protection" though it never really delves into the logic behind that. World War II, Stalin, Hitler, the invasions of Poland, are never directly mentioned. The reader knows these are the events happening in which the characters are caught up in, however they are never directly mentioned. This is one area I feel the author missed the mark. It would have been interesting to develop their individual opinions, thoughts and fears of the events around them and discuss how they were directed effected. And we the readers know they were effected long before seeing shelling off in the distance, or they were rounded up.

And can we discuss the giant elephant in the room, which is where Anton essentially Rapes Lena, impregnates her, and we are supposed to believe he is a good man? And does Anton know about Grigory?

Lena's story is tragic. I enjoyed the part of the story when they were on the Tiaga, the desire and push to survive in unthinkable circumstances, and then to find love in the midst of that. I liked the relationship between Grigory and Lena, perhaps because Grigory is a pragmatist much like Lena, and therefore suited. Not to mention, despite the authors best efforts I just cannot like Anton for what he did to Lena.

I would give this one 3.5 stars. There were moments I really enjoyed, others that fell short. Thanks Netgalley for an advanced copy of this. Sorry it took me so long to post my review.

What a magnificent story.

Generally, I shy away from stories about people during war, especially if it seems there may be character death. I’m easily triggered by famine, torture, and painful things involving children, so I was a bit anxious from other descriptions and reviews, and as I read, there were hints that these things might be ahead.

The writing was so beautiful I could not stop, however. Lena is a rational, intelligent woman who grew up quickly under circumstances not of her own making. She shakes her fist at a world that continues to deal her shock and disappointment, and endures buffeting by winds of a changing world. But she is rarely afraid, and stands up for herself, choosing her own path when she can - rightly or wrongly. She finds joy and sorrow, love and laughter, and even in her regrets she is still true to her own way of looking at life.

The characters are endearing, even when they’re mildly frustrating. You can clearly see the life they live.

I do not want to spoil and it’s difficult to write about this story without doing so. Do yourself a favor and dive in. Like Lena, Grigori, and the ones they love, you will learn that the secret to life is to fully live in the present moment. To capture the sight of a bird soaring up to the clouds, to savor the taste of delicious food on your tongue, to wrap yourself in the warmth of your loved one. The author delivers these heady experiences and more, and you will not regret living in their world for the time you spend there.

Five glorious stars. This is how literary fiction is done.

***Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown, and Co. for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.***

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. I really thought I would enjoy this book since I tend to read historical fiction - especially books which deal with WWII in Europe.

It also had a dual timeline - present day Wales where the main character is dying and reliving her past and also Poland where she grew up. Many books have several timelines but I found this one particularly confusing.

Regrettably this book did not hold my interest or live up to the hype I felt in the description.

Lena is at the end of her life. She has seen death and famine, loved and learned the consequences of its power, and lost, so, so much. Her end comes to her at her farm in Wales, surrounded by her son and granddaughter--but it began in Poland.

When Lena was young and sure life could only be what one made it, fates be damned, she wanted to be a doctor. Not only a doctor, but one of the few women accepted to university. With the encouragement of her beloved father, she pursues science and the study of the human body with abandon and hope. A harrowing accident, which leaves her with a limp for the rest of her life, changes everything. Now, she is married to a Polish officer who she does not love, who takes her away to his isolated post, who forces himself upon her, resulting in a pregnancy that forever solidifies her place as a mother and wife, and never that of a woman of medicine. And then, war breaks out.

Reuniting with her family for only a short, peaceful time, Lena and her sister, pregnant by her new husband who accompanies them, her younger brother, her daughter and parents, are forced to relocate to the taiga as second-rate citizens and "enemies of the state". It is there that Lena will come to love someone who is forbidden, a guard who enforces the strict rations and back-breaking work. The great sacrifice she makes for him will change her life, and the lives of those around her, for generations to come.

Despite really enjoying this book (and Lichtarowicz's poetic prose), I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with the depiction of the Romani woman who gives Lena her fate. For that reason, I'm removing one star from my rating.

"The Snow Hare" is a harrowing tale of wartime, love, both romantic and familial, and the resilience of the human soul, a perfect choice, especially for women, who still to this day know the pain of having their hopes squandered by fate and circumstance.

Przemysl, South East Poland. Sixteen year old Lena Sadowska just received a medical encyclopedia for her birthday. All that mattered was her dream to become the first woman doctor in Poland. Older sister Ala, dreamt of marrying a count or an officer. When a gypsy caravan arrived, both sisters had their fortunes told. The fortune teller gifted Lena with a piece of Baltic resin the size of a duck's egg. "But know this amber for what it is; a thing of solidity. It will not decay like flesh. It won't warp like love nor rot like dreams of the future...you will need something solid to hold on to in life.".

England. On her deathbed, Lena cradled the amber. Memory fragments flashed of a life filled with unhappiness and suffering, but with the resolve to protect and nurture those she loved. A devastating accident ended Lena's dream of attending medical school in Krakow. Instead, she was forced to enter a loveless marriage to Lt. Bem of the Engineering Corps. He promised he would always care for her despite her injury....guilt perhaps? "The loss of a future is as great a loss as any other." "Lena tossed the amber from hand to hand wondering how it must be to end up trapped for all eternity.".

"What would be the outcome of all the posturing between Berlin and Moscow?" The world situation worsened. Lt. Anton Bem, Lena's husband, was arrested. Lena and her family were declared enemies of the state and transported to a work camp in Siberia.

In England, Lena remembered the sudden roar of a train...a long drawn-out squeak of wheels...deep drifts of snow...thin, tasteless soup at daybreak...the back-breaking work of felling trees...meet your quota or no bread for you at day's end. She remembered the bone man...love or love for the moment? Who is the girl running on the steppe?

In "The Snow Hare", love and determination prevailed in the darkness and emptiness of the Siberian work camp. While many faltered losing hope, Lena and her family persevered, surviving against all odds. This story of hope and courage was based upon the recollections of the author's grandmother, who, once released from the work camp travelled to Uzbekistan where a Polish army was forming. Thousands of tents were crammed together, unsanitary conditions, lack of food and medicine. The unbearable conditions were far from over. An excellent, haunting read. Highly recommended.

Thank you Little, Brown and Company and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Read if you like: WW2 stories not featuring the war.
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Lena grows up in a small Polish village and dreams of being a doctor, but due to unforeseen circumstances, she ends up married with a baby to a man she doesn't love. Then when the Soviets take over her village, she and her family end up in a work camp in Siberia.
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This book was beautifully written but I struggled to get into it. It felt too long and while I usually love the back-and-forth between past and present, this felt disjointed. Then I felt like the ending happened so abruptly.
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Overall it was an interesting story though.

The Snow Hare by Paula Lichtarowicz shifts its timeline between current day Wales to World War II Poland. As Lena lies in bed in her final days. her mind takes her back to significant events in her life as a young woman. Growing up in Poland, her dream was to be a doctor although it was unheard of for women to study medicine. Her life takes a different direction when an accident results in her being married to a Polish soldier named Anton, Lena's dreams did not include marriage and possibly children until she could complete her education. When their daughter is born, Lena's focus shifts to Agata. When the Russians invaded Poland, Lena finds herself separated from Anton and returns to her childhood home not knowing what was yet to come. Lena and her family are taken by the Russians and sent to a prisoner camp in a forest in Siberia. Lena and her family make the best of the crude and horrific living conditions. Lena enjoys her evening walks in the nearby woods where she encounters a Russian guard and an unexpected relationship evolves. When the Russians finally release the prisoners and they are sent away from Siberia, there is no designated place set up for them resulting in more tragedy. We learn that Lena ended up living out her life in Wales, but her dreams were dashed and changed by these events. The Snow Hare transports the reader to Siberia during WWII in such a vivid way. Although the book tells a horrific tale, some hope is included to keep the characters from dwelling in misery. Thank you to Net Galley and Little, Brown for the opportunity to read this captivating book.

I struggled with how to rate this book. There were parts that I really enjoyed, but on the flipside, the stuff I didn't like really annoyed me and brought down my overall enjoyment of the book. I loved the idea of the book and the general plot, but I felt like the story dragged, especially in the beginning. While I have no issues with cursing, it seemed the girls at the beginning did it an awful lot, and it didn't really seem to fit the story or their personalities.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

The “Snow Hare” takes us on a lifelong journey of exploring youth, dreams, motherhood, marriage, disappointments, how life can change in a moment, consequences and what is borne of them.
“ The Snow Hare” is the story of Magdalena, a woman who dares to hope and dream in the face of impossible circumstances. As her earthly journey is coming to an end, she relives the experiences of her life, and finds the peace she has longed for.

This unique and beautifully written story is a must-read and will stay with you for a very long time.

As she lies dying, Lena drifts through time. She sees her girlhood in Lublin, Poland; her early young adulthood as an officer’s wife in the Polish mountains; and the most terrifying time of her life in Siberia as a prisoner of the Soviets. Over and over in Paula Lichtarowicz’s affecting novel, The Snow Hare, Lena confronts the loss of choice as she is taken here and there across Europe, losing and gaining family with each roll of history’s dice. With Lena, we have to wonder whether not free will is an illusion or if we can exert any power over what happens to us.

As a teen, Lena studied hard to become a doctor. She reads medical encyclopedias along with her textbooks, preparing to enter medical school in Kraków. Perhaps the day her older sister Ala drags Lena to the Roma/Sinti fortune tellers (an older derogatory is used in the text) is where it all starts to go wrong for Lena. She reluctantly allows her sister to drag her into the tent of the least popular fortune teller, who gifts her (or curses her with) a large piece of Baltic amber. That day is also the day that a Polish army officer, Anton, first sees Lena and decides that she is the one for him. Their “courtship” involves Lena chattering about school and her ambitions while Anton tags along, until another fateful day changes the course of Lena’s life. Lena is run over by a tram while she tries to tell Anton that she’s been accepted to medical school at the same time as Anton is trying to propose to her. Before Lena knows what’s happening, she’s in hospital with a badly broken leg and a fiancé.

The day Lena is hit by the tram is the first of many turning points in her life. It’s also the first time that Lena’s will is tested. Will she fight to follow her dreams? Or will she follow the more conventional route of least resistance? More tests will follow when the Nazis and the Soviets invade Poland, when Lena meets another man in Siberia, and when the tide of war shifts and Lena and her family are finally released. None of these events are spoilers, by the way, given the way Lena’s narration lurches through her timeline. We know roughly the course of Lena’s life within the first few chapters of The Snow Hare, although it’s not until nearly the end that we learn more about Lena’s decisions and their effects.

I don’t know if, at the end of a long life, Lena believes that she’s made the right decisions. And I don’t know that this is the right question to ask her. After all, we’ve watched Lena make and regret and wonder about her decisions—but we also see her make peace with those decisions. Part of making peace with the momentous and disastrous and occasionally wonderful decisions, for Lena, seems to be finding the good in whatever the results of those decisions might be. Her mismatch with Anton brings her a child and protection, after all. Her decisions in Siberia bring her love. At the end of her life, Lena has a son and a granddaughter and many more years than many Polish people had when war came. The right question to ask at the end of The Snow Hare is, what comes next for Lena in the next life?

Lena has lived a long life. It has been filled with joys and sorrows... The story begins as Lena faces the end of her life. As she waits for the end (wishing it to come) she recalls her childhood in Poland, her unwanted marriage, the birth of her daughter (who becomes her life) and then her time in a labor camp in Siberia.

Lena has dreams of being a doctor. She finds love in the most unusual place. She makes decisions that have repercussions for her future. Her story brought tears to my eyes.

This was such an emotionally-driven and inspiring read! The story bounces back and forth between Lena in the present as she is nearing the end of her life and Lena as a young woman in the early days of an unhappy marriage. She had always dreamed of becoming a doctor, but the birth of her daughter put her plans on hold. Just as she was learning to embrace motherhood, the war quickly descended on Poland, and Lena and her family were sent to a labor camp in Siberia while her husband, an army officer, went to the front lines.

In her fight to survive and protect her daughter from the horrors of the camp, Lena unexpectedly found love, and in doing so, she was able to help take care of her loved ones. But she ultimately made a decision that changed everything, and she had to live with the consequences of her choice until her dying day.

This story was one of hope, resilience, and reflection, and while at times the pace was a bit slow, I couldn’t put it down! The only part I didn’t like was when the author dropped a bit of a spoiler regarding Lena’s daughter. It’s alluded to in the present, so later when Lena is recounting what happened in the past, it kind of ruined the shock factor. Other than that, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing a copy of this book to review.*

Unfortunately, this wasn't what I was expecting. I seen so many great reviews for it and it sounded so good so I wanted to give it a try. It started out interesting but then I felt it slowed down and it was hard for me to get into it. It was really a depressing story and I did skim parts. Please don't pass on this one if it intrigues you, like I said, I saw so many people loved it.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.