Book Talking - The Love That I Have By James Moloney

Hello and welcome to the Creative-Capsule ...!!!

Todays book talk is about heartwarming periodic romance 'The love that I have" by James Moloney. James Moloney is a award winning Australian author of children's books. 

This is a story of sixteen year old  Margot Baumann, who has left school to take up her sister's job in a prison mailroom. But this is Germany in 1944, and the prison is Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin.

Margot is shielded from the camp's brutality as she has no contact with prisoners. But she does handle their mail and, when given a cigarette lighter and told to burn the letters, she is horrified by the callous act she must carry out with her own hands. This is especially painful since her brother was taken prisoner at Stalingrad and her family has had no letters from him.

So Margot steals a few letters, intending to send them in secret, only to find herself drawn to their heart-rending words of hope, of despair, and of love.

This is how Margot comes to know Dieter Kleinschmidt - through the beauty and the passion of his letters to his girlfriend. And since his girlfriend is also named Margot, it is like reading love letters written for her. I actually received this tittle into my recommendations because I picked up a mystery novel called "This little dark place" which is about a someone who gets involved with a murder accused after joining a pen pal program for prisoners. Well there are obvious similarities but both the books are totally different from each other. Frankly speaking, I was very skeptical about reading "The love that we have" because I normally do not like to read historical novels. I think historical novels, especially those based on archival events are little too descriptive in terms of timelines, locations, names as well as the scenarios and are sometimes its difficult to connect with. So, after much debate I picked up the book but by the time I reached chapter two, I just couldn't put it down. It was a fast moving story that offered a unique angle to the dark times during World War II. It beautifully portrays the innocence of a sixteen year old Margot with a youthful optimism that love can conquer everything. It is heart wrenching to see her emotional turmoil when hit hard by loving words in the letters that will never make it to their destination because it is her job to burn those letters. The novel had so many Awww moments for me that made me smile bright but on countless times, the story threw me off the edge, thinking 'she is so stupid ..this will never work'. It is very engaging to read how Margot deals with all the unexpected situations and make it through with determination. "The love that I have" is a magnificent tale of love, hope and courage during the most unforgiving times in the history. The parts of the stories captured my heart and changed my mind about the historic reads. It was also informative for me in terms of prison realities, as I have never read much about the world war times before. I am sure there are thousands of books that are set in World war times,but this tale with a brave and innocent love story is definitely appealing to any reader. I totally recommend this book for the anyone who is looking for a beautiful romance read. If you happen to read "The love that we had" let me know your views about it in the comments. Till then Happy Reading...!!