Cover Image: You Will Be Safe Here

You Will Be Safe Here

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Member Reviews

Through evocative prose and richly drawn characters, Barr explores the ways in which trauma and violence reverberate through generations, shaping the lives of those who come after. He delves into the complexities of South Africa's history, from the brutality of colonialism and apartheid to the ongoing struggle for justice and reconciliation.

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Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Full review to be found on Goodreads and on my website.

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This is an interesting story, going between the two story lines and time periods. The situations are similar but different in their context. Both are heartbreaking in their own right and make this a compelling read. Its a stunning account of how we as humans will use "camps", in whatever terminology you wish to use, as a manner of hiding or excluding or mistreating certain other humans because they may be different from us.
Difficult to read but justifiably so. No one should be comfortable with this topic.

#YouWillBeSafeHere #NetGalley

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Beautifully written a debut novel that sweeps you into South Africa over a hundred year period.Family history involvement emotionally involving page turner. #netgalkey,#bloomsburyusa

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This is an interesting debut. It's the story of a South African family over a 100 year period, beginning with a diary written by Sarah, a Boer in an English detainment camp, and concluding with Willem, a teen sent to what is clearly a conversion camp. The section with Sarah is, the strongest, perhaps because this is a chapter of history that has received little attention. Willem's story is familiar, and yet not. He's a "sensitive" boy who has been sent away by his mother to toughen up. He is not safe there, just as Sarah was not safe. Their lives are torn in different ways but the result is the same. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of world literature.

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Releases 5/2019, You Will Be Safe Here, is a debut novel that I could not put down. The buzz I have heard has been great and I was not disappointed. South Africa from the Anglo-Boer wars through present day through several stories horrific and characters heroic. Well done Mr. Barr.

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It's 2014- Willem is being dropped off at a correctional camp.
Assured he will be safe, his mother and step father drive away.

It's 1901- The private writings of Sarah van der Watt, forced to leave her home wither he 6 year old son, prisoners in a concentration camp.

From 1901 we follow generation after generation back to 2014.

A powerful book beautifully written. The kind of story that will stay with you and make you question the driving force behind peoples actions.
This books folds into itself in such a beautiful way, lives and experiences effecting the lives and experiences of the next generation.

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This book wasn't quite for me, but I did appreciate the setting. It is a story of survival and struggles and by the end while I didn't really love the story, the characters had grown on me and felt like friends.

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I appreciate that this book taught me history that I had known nothing about.

However, I did not enjoy the writing style, which was difficult to read. Capitalization, punctuation, and spacing were wildly irregular and distracting and made it difficult to read. (I don't mean that there were several typos here and there; I mean the book was stylistically written in such a way that every single sentence was rife with them, as if it was done intentionally.)

There are several reasons that I did not enjoy reading this and wouldn't recommend it, but I'm not going to flog the book to death. Some people might like it. But for me, it was dark and hopeless throughout, without ever coming up for air.

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You Will Be Safe Here is a story of survival. While I liked the concept of the story, I couldn't connect with this story or the characters. I found the story bleak and the characters tiresome. Unfortunately, I didn't care for this book. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

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