This story was good but not great. I felt it read more like a historical fiction than a nonfiction and with that the author wrote in back,  feel it should have been labeled historical fiction. 

My other issue with the book is that I felt there wasn't a much drama and parts were left out that should have been told. At one point Frank and Bruce are moved to the front line in a battle. The next sentence the battle is over.  This is one of many scenes where I felt the reader was missing out. 

Overall not a bad book just not one that overly excited me. 

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion.

First hand accounts of war time experiences are usually hard to read but I was rooting for the Kiwi POW, Bruce and the resistance fighter, Josefine in the middle of Nazi-occupied territory.  The hardships and tragedies are numerous but their love story is inspiring.  It’s truly amazing how resilient some human beings are.  Highly recommend to those who are interested in WWII.

A true story about a Kiwi POW, Bruce, and a Slovenian Resistance fighter, Josefine. It is well written and you hear both of their stories and how they've come to fall in live despite many obstacles.

I really liked that it is setting in Slovenia and not your typical WWII settings of Germany or France. It highlights a not much talked part of Europe that was fighting the Nazis

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC

The Note Through the Wire
The Incredible True Story of a Prisoner of War and a Resistance Heroine
by Doug Gold
William Morrow and Custom House
 You Are Auto-Approved
William Morrow Paperbacks
Biographies & Memoirs | History | Nonfiction (Adult)
Pub Date 16 Mar 2021   |   Archive Date 11 May 2021

This is a great true story of love between a prisoner of war and a resistance heroine.  I really enjoyed this book which filled me with courage, hope, and love.  Great book that I will recommend to our history and biography readers. Thanks to William Morrow and Custom House as well as Netgalley for the ARC.  

5 stars

A fascinating read based on a true story of love found during WWII. Josephine, who becomes a partisan in the Slovene (Yugoslavia), is searching for her missing brother when she meets Bruce, a New Zealand soldier and POW. Theirs is a story of courage and resilience, hope and love.

Thank you to William Morrow, Netgalley and the author Doug Gold for the advanced reader copy of this book!

I received an ARC of this novel and enjoyed it. This is a love story between Josephine and Bruce during WWII. It is a fictionalized account of a true events 

Bruce is a POW who has a chance meeting with Josephine when she is passing a note through the barbed wire, to learn about the whereabouts of her brother, Polde, who had been captured by the Germans.

Josephine and her entire family are partisans. They each, in their own way, take tremendous risks to thwart the Nazi's efforts. Even when questioned and tortured, they stay true to their commitments and work against the Germans.

During the story, we alternate between the events impacting both Josephine and Bruce until the day they finally come face to face and eventually fall in love. 

This is a love story told during the backdrop of a horrific time in our history. We meet some beautiful, resilient characters who exhibit kindness and humanity despite huge risks to themselves and their families. We also meet the worst of the worst.

I appreciate the author's dedication to telling this story and ensuring the rest of the world knows the story of Josephine and Bruce.

I loved this book,   I have been reading a lot of Historical fiction and this one didn’t disappoint .

Well-told story recounting true events. A chance encounter leads to another chance encounter in the middle of one of the worst times in human history. True love and hope for a better future help 2 people survive and endure, to come out on the other side.

Historical fiction is my favourite genre and particularly books written about WWII and the strength and courage of people who lived through this period of history. 

The Note Through the Wire is based on a true story. A love story which develops in the most unusual of circumstances. 
Josefine, a Nazi resistance member slips a note through the wire of Stalag XVIIID, in Slovenia, to which Bruce Murray a NZ POW takes. Josefine is searching for her missing brother and her note pleads for help in finding him. A remarkable story develops from this encounter and we learn about Bruce and Josefine’s lives. 
The hardship endured during this period of history and the  bravery and courage of individuals who lived through it is portrayed with raw truth. The book is harrowing and heartbreaking at times but it is so important to never forget this part of history.

This fictionalized memoirs describes the experiences of the author’ in-laws during World War II. Bruce Murray, a soldier from New Zealand, has a chance encounter with Josefine Lob in, a resistance fighter in Yugoslavia. The narrative alternates between the two as they undergo hardship and danger, fall in love, and against all odd are finally reunited after the war is over. The author’s extensive research brought the horrors of war to life. The bravery and true love of Bruce and Josefine are truly inspiring.

Numerous books have been written to give us a glimpse of the atrocities that took place during WWII. This is another heart wrenching war story.

Yet, this is different. It's a true love story mixed in with some fictional names written with great passion.. It's dedicated to the main characters: Bruce Murray and Josefine Lobnik. They came from different parts of the world. Bruce decided to enter the war with his buddies in New Zealand. Josefine was in the thick of it with her family involvement in Slovenia part of the kingdom of Yugoslavia in the 1930s. They met by chance when she carefully and secretly gave Bruce a note asking for help when he was in a POW camp. He watched her on the other side of the wire not really sure what she was asking at the time. He didn't see her again until later at a different place when they just happened to meet again. What were the odds?

The book gives the reader a timeline of events from the beginning to the end of the war told with alternated stories told by Bruce and Josefine. For those that want a real picture of what happened, this is it. There are no censor of words. Bruce said, the dessert was "miles and miles of fuck all" as he was walking in the pounding heat. In Cairo, Bruce described the scent of rotting garbage, tobacco, unwashed bodies, spices and incense in the mix. He said bugs bit everyone at movies which made me cringe. Then after he was caught in Greece as a POW, he heard cries of the wounded, saw the pain of those dying and felt the profound grief when he lost his friends. 

Josefine was warned to watch every word she said. They tortured her family and friends. Women were at times raped and killed afterwards. No one knew from one day to the next if they would survive. She had to keep moving to find safety for her life. It was the most challenging tests of life with families wiped out and children separated from their parents. "No one seemed to know how long they were going to endure these conditions." Josephine was a part of the partisan movement to pass along messages and help the prisoners. The first rule of survival was to trust no one - not even your best friends.

Bruce summed it up by saying there's "no justice in this fucked up world." It was a continued state of suffering from 1939 to 1945. Then after the war, people had to adjust and recreate their lives which took time and patience. This book - as many others - are important for us to read. It's the only way we can understand our past and hopefully prevent it from happening again. It was evident that the author did a considerable amount of work to make this book historically accurate.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

The Note Through the Wire is a fascinating true love story involving prisoner of war and a resistance fighter during World War II. Their story is interwoven among the devastating struggles and unthinkable circumstances they encounter. It is truly one for the ages! 
It is brutal to read about the atrocities of Hitler's reign and the way it affected so many, but it also lends a greater understanding as to what these people were going through and just how much they had to overcome to find love.

I find books about WWII fascinating. The things these people had to endure under Hitler was atrocious.  It is unfathomable to me that today we still have people with such discriminating and racist views towards others.

This was a must read book if you like to read about WWII.  It is nonfiction with some fictional items added in where no reports  existed.  I loved the separate backgrounds and stories on Josephine and Bruce and then how their lives became intertwined.

Books like these help to show the courage and resilience of people to never give up even when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  They show there is always room for hope and love.

4.0 stars

I received a complimentary Kindle copy of this book from Allen & Unwin through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to Doug Gold, Allen & Unwin, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

As many of my friends and family know, historical fiction is my absolute favorite. I love learning about history as it can help us make our present and future a better place! But, I have been in a rut reading WWII book after WWII book. Unfortunately, during the time of COVID, this isn't the best for my mental health.

However, I am glad that I read this book. It was ultimately about good triumphing over evil which is very timely during the times that we live in. I did not know much about the New Zealand forces in North Africa, Greece, or anywhere at all. This novel filled in a lot of gaps for me and broadened my knowledge.

This book was very good. I like that it was told in the two-person format which was perfect for this storyline. I really like the characters and the development of the story!! My only suggestion would be to know what happened to characters in greater detail after WWII ended. 

Recommend!!

Every time I look at this cover and I am reminded that this novel is based on a true story my heart skips a beat and I unintentionally hold my breath for just a second. I don't often read something so heavy, but this is absolutely worth it. The simple twists of fate aligns two people who couldn't be in two more different places in life. I think it's the unbelievable bravery that always strikes me as most moving in any work that focuses on WWII. The power of the human spirit and soul to endure is nothing short of remarkable.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this book. I just finished a WW2 story that was ok. I usually pace myself with WW2 books because some of them can be quite harsh.  But I really enjoyed this story. It's quite a story and so very glad it was written. Bruce and Josefine are amazing and I'm very glad they had a life together. What makes my sad is that they are not alive to see their story become known. I have recommended this book to friends

I found this story a very interesting read.  I am a self-confessed WWII junkie so I was very happy to receive a copy of this book.  The only problem I have is that I can’t make up my mind to call this non-fiction since the author created the conversations and many of the incidents in the book but it is based on actual people and their story of survival.  So, it’s not truly non-fiction but I feel like it would be an insult to their memory to call it historical fiction.  Oh well, it’s my dilemma.

The author had to do a lot of research to compile the story of Bruce a New Zealand soldier and Josefine a partisan in the Slovene (Yugoslavia).  We have alternating chapters of the same time period both before and after they meet.  Their stories apart and together are of bravery and courage and their individual struggles to survive World War II all while somehow managing to not only fall in love but stay in love through all the devastation.

And yes, the first time they meet is when she passes him a note through the wire and never returns for the response and yet, some how, some way, they end up meeting again.

Thank you to William Morrow, HarperCollins Publishers, Netgalley and the author Doug Gold for the ebook of this story.

What a horrific subject but a beautiful love story. The brave men & women that died & lived for freedom was & is still Unbelievable!!  I loved the characters & read this book in 2 days. I could not put it down. Tgank you Netgalley for this book!

What a fascinating story of love during a window of history that saw such atrocities and tragedy. The Note Through the Wire follows Bruce and Josefine as they meet by chance when he is a POW and she is seeking news of her missing brother. The story does a wonderful job of explaining how Bruce came to be a POW through the course of WWII to their forced separation as the war came to an end. The description of battles, locations, and what challenges the people living in Europe experienced painted a bleak picture. If you are an avid reader of stories from World War II, you will enjoy the story of a love that endured despite the hardships faced by Bruce and Josefine.

This is a true love story that takes place across Europe during WWII between an Austrian resistance fighter and a New Zealand prisoner of war.  It brings a different perspective of the war as seen through their eyes and experiences.