I received a free e-copy of The Children's Train in exchange for an unbiased review

There were parts of this book I loved and parts that just seemed redundant. The events are seen through the eyes of Amerigo, a seven-year-old boy who lives in southern postwar Italy. He is fascinated by shoes and marks happiness and success by the condition of someone's shoes. Hunger and poverty are rampant and Amerigo's single mother, Antonietta, makes the heartbreaking decision to send him north with other children on a train sponsored by the Communist Party. What is in the North is somewhat a mystery but Antonietta and other parents are desperate. Amerigo and the other children find loving homes, food, and an education for the six months or so they are there. Their attitudes and expectations are irrevocably altered by their experiences.

Antonietta is a most interesting character. Gruff and easily critical, she doesn't have the usual mothering characteristics; one must wonder if all her energy had gone into just surviving the war with a living child. Amerigo and his mother never really open up to each other, perhaps because of Amerigo's youth or Antonietta's fear of being soft when survival depends on a certain toughness. She never really connects with her own child.

Since most of this book is from the point of view of a young boy, there are glimpses of people and events that he really doesn't understand; readers must draw the connections and implications. This novel provides another perspective of the lasting ramifications of war that don't end with a signed surrender.

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