Ghostwritten is a stunner of a book. Nothing like any book I’ve read before, I thought the setting and characters were beautifully written and this made it a mesmerising novel. Ghostwritten is haunting, moving and a wonderful read. Jenni is a ghostwriter, with a new commission to work on the memoirs of Klara. Klara is a strong woman, one who has survived the Japanese internment camps during World War Two. Jenni was unaware at the time that Klara’s life would take her to Polvarth – a place she never wanted to return to, but what unfolds is a beautiful journey with the intrigue of an untold secret and the emotion from Klara’s heart-wrenching tales. Jenni and Klara are two of the strongest characters I’ve ever read. Klara in particular is one who will stay with me for a long time. Her story was very emotional and did move me to tears a few times. She’s also a character who was so brave and told such a powerful story, I felt like I could actually learn from her experiences and take strength from her. Jenni’s story was more mysterious and I was rooting for her to be impacted by Klara’s story, to be able to open up and overcome the obstacles she needed to in order to live her life. This is a hard review to write because really you just need to follow the touching, fascinating story so you can get it and see the beauty in the author’s writing. The pace allows the reader to immerse themselves in the extraordinarily poignant story perfectly. There was never a moment for me that I didn’t feel something, that I felt it was uninteresting or I couldn’t take anything from the novel. Ghostwritten is truly beautiful and unforgettable.

Jenni Clark loves writing but not being in the spotlight, so ghostwriting other people's stories provides the perfect creative outlet for her. It also gives her the opportunity to get up close and personal to the people she studies and learn something new along the way. Through an acquaintance she's put in touch with an elderly Dutch woman by the name of Klara with the opportunity to write the older woman's memoirs. Now living in South Cornwall, Klara spent her childhood years in the Dutch East Indies; first on a big plantation and later in various internment camps across Java during the Japanese occupation. Her story while incredibly harrowing is also a fascinating one. Admittedly Ghostwritten wasn't on my radar until the author contacted me with the question if I'd like a copy for review, but this is exactly the kind of novel I enjoy reading (though perhaps, enjoy isn't the right word to use in this instance). Author Isabel Wolff has taken a subject that I knew shamefully little about at the start of the book (and being Dutch myself I really should've been more informed about it) and turned it into a vivid piece of history that I can now not let go of. The novel has an incredible sense of place, transporting the reader from rural England to the tropical heat of Java as soon as Klara starts telling her moving story. At the start of the novel I could see the lush plantation appear before my eyes, with Klara and her friends playing in the sunshine and enjoying this thus far idyllic exotic location. But of course their happiness doesn't last long and her family is soon torn apart as the Japanese occupy her home and she is sent to an internment camp with her mother and little brother. The journey that follows is equal parts fascinating and horrifying. As so many children caught in a war she's forced to see and do horrible things and grow up far quicker than she should have otherwise, her childhood disappearing as soon as she sets foot in the first camp. Interspersed with Klara's recount of the Japanese occupation is the story of Jenni. Despite being decades and continents apart there is an eerie similarity between the two women's lives and not only are Klara's memories enriching for both Jenni and the reader alike, but they also help Jenni to finally face a horrible secret from her own past. I'm in awe with this amazing novel. Hugely gripping both in the present and past storylines and incredibly realistic, Wolff's descriptions of Klara's life in Java are immensely detailed and vivid. Despite having never been there myself, I now feel a sense of connection to the place. I don't read a huge amount of historical fiction, but now and again I come across a gem like this and I ask myself, why not? This beautiful, harrowing and ultimately extremely moving novel mesmerised me from the start. It was hugely educational as well and for that alone I cannot recommend it highly enough. If like me your history lessons in school have mainly focussed on how the second world war affected Europe, this will certainly be a heart-breaking eye-opener.

The story begins with a prologue from 1987 before the story starts in the present time, where two small children, Evie and Ted are playing on a beach. From this, is it is clear that something terrible has happened, although nothing is actually confirmed. In the present day we meet Jenni, a ghostwriter. Jenni’s relationship with her boyfriend Rick is in trouble and after a chance introduction at a wedding, Jenni accepts a commission to ghostwrite the memoirs of an elderly lady, Klara. The only problem is she has to travel to a place that she has tried desperately to avoid all these years, Polvarth in Cornwall. Once Jenni meets Klara and gains her trust, Klara’s memories of her young life spent in the Japanese internment camps during the war years start to spill out. These memories are hard for Klara to share, she has never spoken of them before and they are so painful to remember. However as Jenni becomes more involved in transcribing Klara’s words, it is clear that the two women have more in common than they might at first have thought and it is just possible that they might be able to help each other to come to terms with past events. I’ve read and enjoyed books by Isabel Wolff in the past but this dual time frame story was something a little different. I read it over a few days and was completely engrossed in the story. Often with time slip novels, I find one era more interesting than another and it was the case here. Whilst Jenni was a likeable enough character, it was Klara’s story that I found the most compelling. Klara was a very strong character and the memories of her time in the internment camps in Java made for harrowing reading. I have read previous books about the Japanese prison camps and of course many years ago there was a TV series called “Tenko” but the needless cruelty shown by the Japanese soldiers still makes for difficult reading. Klara’s memories of the torture, deprivation and starvation suffered by the women were very powerful – you had to be very strong, both physically and mentally to survive. Isabel Wolff has written a wonderfully well researched novel which is not only very interesting to read but also extremely moving and poignant. Excellent characterisation and a sense of place made this a 5* read for me. I loved it and would certainly recommend it.