"The Child Who Lived" is a gripping fictionalized tale that immediately opens up into a no-holds-barred presentation faced by everyday citizens facing the horror and reality of WW2. Based on the accounts of women prisoners of war forced into sexual slavery, the story while fictional, doesn't refrain from depicting the horror women prisoners had to endure, and recounts from a first-person perspective taken from excruciating testimonies in the book "Born Survivors".
Midwood's writing and research are precise. Framed within the story of the protagonist undergoing a divorce trial, the story is presented as part of court testimony, making the presentation of the tale which unfolds all the more gripping for readers, and heart-wrenching with its tale of atrocities, and hope despite the darkness.
Much of what Midwood presents is based on historical fact, making this tale, despite fictional, difficult, but a necessity to read. Using testimonials of the hardships women had to endure in the concentration camps, the book serves as a reminder of unknown and forgotten parts of history, but within it, tales of immense bravery which over time have all but been forgotten. The writing in many cases is necessarily raw and brutal. Yet, there is still within the framework, a reminder of the perseverance of the human spirit, even in the eyes of immense odds.
Ellie Midwood has presented to both the world of fiction, and the world in general, a work of writing, which strives both to capture historical authenticity, and at the same time, explore both sides of human nature, both good and bad.