1982, Melbourne Australia. Lisa is in Year 10 at Glenrock Secondary School and she’s been dating a nice looking guy called Adam Winter for the past two months. He’s kind and Lisa is excited about being his girlfriend. Lisa’s best friend Deb is never far away, and they’re really close, always laughing and having fun.

Lisa is going to need them both, because her dad – the mayor of their town, tells his family he only has 6 months to live.

She can’t believe it. She won’t believe it. Pushing the thought of her loud, strong, popular dad being sick aside, she wants everything to be the same as it was before he spoke those words. Dad doesn’t look sick, but he explains he has motor neurone disease and his muscles will slowly stop working. But that’s not all. He has more to tell them. Something he has kept from them their whole lives. They are Jewish, and he was sent with his family, neighbours and friends to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp when he was 13.

Every Friday, instead of staying at Debs like she always did, Lisa joins her two older brothers and Mum to listen to her Dad’s story of his childhood. At first she can’t take it in. She hides it from her friends and boyfriend – wanting something to stay how it was before her world began to fall apart. The more Dad tells them, the more she understands why he hid it. She is watching her father disappear before her eyes, as his own father did in the Camp. But the more her father fights the disease, without anger or remorse or negativity, the more she sees his strength, courage and love for his family.

Warning – Tissues required. When I received the ARC of this novel, I knew it would be something special. Many years ago I read another novel by this author called The Wrong Boy. I’ve never forgotten how it affected me. Inkflower is even more heart wrenching as it is based in truth.

When I read the Author’s Note and realised she had been through what Lisa had been through, I was undone. I have read dozens of stories about the Holocaust, and believe we need every single one. We must never forget. We must know what happened and remember what we have learned.

This is a story from before the war when a Jewish boy was constantly bullied at school, to a young Jewish man who ended up in Australia, keen to live, love, and be the best he could in spite of everything that had happened to him. His courage through the Holocaust and the illness that takes him from his own family is inspirational, as are the millions of other stories of Holocaust survivors.

Heart wrenching. Powerful. Beautifully written. Thank you Suzy Zail, for sharing YOUR story.

Author – Suzy Zail

Age – 14+

Read the first Chapter here

Learning Resources here

(2023, Walker Books, Holocaust, Jewish, Second World War, World War II, Murder, Auschwitz, Concentration Camp, Hunger, Starvation, Work Camps, Freedom, Positivity, Will to live, Motor Neurone Disease, Heartbreaking, Hope, Love, Family, Secrets, Grief, History, Historical, Australia, Refugee)