Doug GoldCritiques

This book was lent to me by my daughter. It wasn't on my radar to read but then another friend recommended it, so I thought I would give it a go.
It is a war story based on the experiences of real people. Although the dialogue is imagined, the events that take place are all too real. In many ways books like this are important, especially for future, younger generations.
It starts with Peter Blunden and another fellow soldier making their escape from a moving train while in transit to a concentration camp during World War 11. They are in Greece and are taken in and sheltered by a woman and her son that are part of the resistance movement. The woman runs a dressmaking workshop and Peter spends 10 months hidden there. However, his stay puts the family and workers at risk, as it is a German occupied town. The story reminds the readers of the immense bravery of these people, the risk to their own lives and the hope that sustains them through such gruelling times.
When Peter eventually makes it back to New Zealand, he realises he left his heart behind in Greece and he reveals his true feelings to the woman who has captured his heart.

These war novels are so heartbreaking and just still so hard to fathom that this happened. I always learn so much when I read these stories. It always amazes me the endurance and strength people had in order to do things to save others and remain alive during the war. Another great novel based on a true story of resistance, persistence and selflessness. Another great historical war read. I always seem to find something new, I did not know before when I read these no matter how similar they can be.

I was surprised by how hard it was for Bruce and Josefine to be together after the war finished but I am glad that they were finally able to get together. I love how their paths cross early in the story and then they come together again after they have both been through so much. It was sad how Bruce was treated after the war was finished by fellow veterans, family and friends, but I imagine that a lot of people didn't know how to react after the war was finished. Overall, a fantastic book and I highly recommend.

The things we do for love... What a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing your in-laws' prolific experiences. It sure makes one believe in true love again!

Based on a true story inspired by the author’s own family, The Note Through the Wire is a compelling blend of history and romance set during World War II. The story unfolds in alternating chapters as told by both Bruce and Josefine.

Fighting for the New Zealanders in Greece, Bruce is wounded and captured by the Germans near Corinth. He spends the next four years in a German POW camp. Farmed out to work on a farm, he eventually meets Josefine. A Slovene partisan, she’s in hiding at the farm after a close friend betrays her anti-Nazi activities to the Nazis.

Woven throughout two tales of great bravery is the remarkable story of two ordinary people who find an unexpected love that overcomes war, distance, and the unimageable hardships of German-occupied Europe during WWII.

“I intended to write this book twenty years ago,” says the author in the Acknowledgements. He goes on to explain that the two main characters, New Zealander Bruce Murray and Slovene Josefine Lobnik, both died before their memoirs were ever recorded. So he reconstructs the story of how their love blossomed behind barbed wire during WWII via other sources.

A page-turner, for sure!

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. 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. 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.

I received an advance copy of this book. Thank you.
This book tells a remarkable tale of two people during WWII. Bruce Murray is a young man from New Zealand who has been captured and is a prisoner in a camp in Slovenia. His journey there was a long one, and this wasn't his last stop. Josefine Lobnik is a young girl, living in an occupied area of Slovenia. The longer the Germans are there, the more determined she and others become to mount a resistance. When her brother is captured, she is desperate to find news about him. This leads her to slip a note into the prisoner camp via Bruce, to find out if her brother is there, or has been there. This is the first of many fateful encounters that bring the two together, until they form a true friendship. This book tells of the harsh life within the camp and what prisoners did to survive. It also tells of the hardships faced by the citizens of occupied countries. Every day was a struggle filled with uncertainty and fear.
It is a beautiful and touching story.

I thought that the things that made this book compelling were that 1) it was based on a true story and 2) the circumstances of two people coming together against all odds were so unique. Through the barbed wire, Bruce Murray, a POW at Stalag camp, is passed a note to through the wire from a woman disguised as an elderly woman. Joseafine Lobnik is looking for her brother who was recently captured by the Germans. .

As the story progresses, the backgrounds of both characters are revealed through time and how their perceptions of war change and how their lives/characters are impacted. It was also interesting to read about POW's who are separated in the camp based on where they came from and how that impacts their treatment. It was also interesting to read about the motivations and bravery that fueled the resistance.

Without giving out spoilers, the story is of these two individuals who ultimately fall in love and the story of how that relationship is impacted by the war. Overall this was a very real and interesting read about a piece of WWII that is unique compared to many of the other books out there on the topic.

Reader received an advanced readers copy from the publisher through Library Thing Early Reviewers.

Amid the spate of World War II memoirs and novels comes this story of Bruce Murray, a prisoner of war in Slovenia, and Josefine Lobnik, a local daughter of active partisans who also joins the resistance. They briefly meet by accident but encounter each other again and fall in love. Danger and separations abound, but courage and love prevail. Written by the couple's son-in-law, the narrative seems to emphasize Bruce's experiences, about which more is known. Josefine died in an automobile accident three days before she was scheduled to recount her story for the author.

I found this a difficult book to review because it straddles the fence between nonfiction and fiction--factual insofar as the facts are known, but filling in the gaps. It is a valuable contribution to the literature of WWII for the uncommon perspectives of its two leading characters and for its portrayal of everyday life in Nazi-occupied Slovenia.

William Morrow deserves praise for its perseverance in getting a review copy to me. When I reported that my book had not arrived, they sent another. The two copies arrived two days apart, the first apparently having been delayed in the mail for two months. Special thanks to Morrow!½

This book is unlike most WWII ones I’ve read because instead of a setting inside a concentration camp, it occurs, in some part, inside a prisoner of war camp. It’s based on a true story of how a New Zealand soldier and prisoner of war, Bruce Murray, and Josefine Lobnik, a Slovene resistance fighter, meet and fall in love.The Note Through the Wire is interesting exactly because it’s centered around events that actually occurred and for the look it offers readers into life inside a prisoner of war camp and the dangers undertaken by partisan fighters. I felt closer to Josefine and became more involved in her story than Bruce’s, for some reason, perhaps because I felt her wartime experience seemed more “real” to me than Bruce’s. Whatever my thoughts, it’s a decent and different piece of WWII writing for those who are interested.

The Note Through the Wire was a different perspective on what happened in Europe during WWII with the focus of a POW and female partisan, I did not know much about New Zealand's involvement fighting the Nazis in Europe. I loved that it is a true story and it was well-written. I also appreciated the maps at the beginning of the book that showed Bruce's route and the pictures of Bruce and Joseffine.

The author, Doug Gold, is the son-in-law of the subjects of this based on truth novel. WWII was a horrific time in history especially for those fighting the war. Love may be a battlefield but Bruce and Josefine find love on several battlefields. Bruce Murray is a New Zealand POW being held by the Germans in Slovenia close to where Josefine Lobnik lives; they met when Josefine slips Bruce a note through the wire fence.

As fate would have the lives intertwine, they met again on the farm of one of Josefine's relatives when Bruce is assigned as farm work. Amidst all the fighting and cruelty of the war, they fall in love. They are separated throughout the war as Josephine helps the resistance move documents and people. Both Bruce and Josefine face danger every day of the war but their love does not fade.. As the end of the war grows closer, Josefine helps Bruce escape the POW camp and guides him to safety where they must separate. It is agony for both of them but they both pledge that they will find each other after the war.

The reader will feel their pain, applaud their courage and cheer them to reunite.

This is the story of the author’s in-laws, who met during WWII in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, where he was a POW and she was part of the local resistance movement. These perspectives are not often featured in American stories from the war, and will be appreciated by WWII history buffs looking for a different angle. Bruce and Josefine’s descendants are indeed lucky to have this accounting for posterity.

My interest as a reader tends to be in literary and historical fiction. The writing didn’t win me over in that regard. Bruce and Josefine never came to life, and the story itself was bogged down by details well researched but not relevant to the main storyline.½

THE NOTE THROUGH THE WIRE

Our story begins in February of 1942 in Nazi occupied Europe.
Bruce Murray, a New Zealand soldier, is a prisoner of war in Stalag XVIIID.
Josefine Lobnik, of Maribor, is a young Slovene carrying a concealed package of documents from one partisan group to another.

As a cry for help in her search for her missing brother, a crumbled note passed through the wire of the POW compound at Maribor will change the life course of Bruce and Josefine forever.

As much as I was inspired by the bravery, courage and love,
I was distressed by the horrific moments recounted.
There are a roller coaster of emotions in their story.

This is an extraordinary WWII account that is well worth your reading.
A sad yet joyful saga

Based on a true story during the war. Josefine lives in Yugoslavia which is Nazi occupied. Her sister is partisan, her brother has been arrested and she does not know where he is. Josefine joins the the partisans and slips a note under the wire fence at a POW camp. Bruce a POW from New Zealand takes the note and attempts to help her find her brother. He hopes that she will return to the fence. Bruce escapes and is sent to another camp and while there on a work detail he meets Josefine again.
A wonderful story of how through tragedy love is found. A very enjoyable read. I received this book in exchange for a review.

This book is very reminiscent of The Tattooist of Auschwitz but more action-packed. The beginning of the book didn't flow as well as the rest of the book, so it took me a little bit to get into this book. However, once I got further into the book I couldn't put it down. There are so many twists and turns in this story I was constantly in awe of the fact that it is a true story. It would have been nice to have an epilogue chapter with a lot of the info from the Author's Note, but I was glad there was some information at the end about what happened next in Bruce and Josefine's story.

I always have favored war stories and this of course included a great love story but the book didn't flow easily. Both Bruce and Josefine were amazing people with an amazing story but I felt as though I was taking a class course and was standing at a great distance from feeling involved.

The Note Through the Wire: The Incredible True Story of a Prisoner of War and a Resistance Heroine.
This is a true story about a soldier from New Zealand and a young girl from Slovenia. Both were victims in their own unique way, as is true with every survivor of the Holocaust. It was only through luck, cunning or sheer will that some survived the brutality of the National Socialist regime. Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich was thankfully brought to an end in far less time. Their story is told in alternating chapters featuring the experiences of each, Josefine and Bruce, and sometimes featuring both of them. Hitler’s war created many heroes and heroines in spite of the evil he wrought upon the world. Hitler and his followers were examples of the worst behavior mankind could exhibit, but Bruce and Josefine were examples of the opposite, the best and most courageous of us who were willing to sacrifice their own lives to save the lives of others.
Bruce enlisted with two buddies after a night of drinking. His marriage was floundering and he was escaping it into another world, perhaps without thinking carefully enough about what was to come. Josefine lived in Slovenia which was invaded by the German Army and brutalized at the soldier’s pleasure.
Bruce is captured after a brutal battle in Greece, a battle in which he witnesses the dreadful toll of war. Ultimately, he is sent to Stalag XVIIID, in Maribor. Josefine lives in Limbus, not far from Maribor, and although she is barely 18, she works with the partisans and is a freedom fighter. She is a part of the Polish Underground, as are her other siblings. Her family does not support the Nazis and is doing its part to thwart them. They all suffer for it.
Josefine’s brother Polde is captured and released after being brutally tortured. He reveals nothing to the Nazis. He goes into hiding, but he is reckless and returns once more to visit his family. He is soon recaptured. No one knows where he has been sent, and the family fears he is dead. Still, Josefine, refuses to give up hope. She goes to the nearby prison camp in Maribor, disguised as an old crone. What she is doing is very dangerous. She is hoping to attract the attention of a prisoner and to pass him a note asking if her brother, Polde Lobnik, is incarcerated there. If she is spotted, she will be captured or shot, as will the prisoner who aids her. The only soldier who faces the danger and will approach the fence is an unkempt, disheveled man. That soldier is Bruce Murray. She passes him the note and runs away as a guard spots her, and she injures her ankle as she escapes. She hears him shout Halt over and over again and waits for a bullet or the sound of pursuing dog. Bruce places his body between the guard and Josefine so he cannot get a clear shot. Her injury prevents her from returning to the camp as promised in the note. Bruce has the note translated and endangering himself further, attempts to find out if anyone knows of her brother. When she doesn’t return, he bribes someone to bring her a note explaining that her brother is not there. Josefine is touched by his effort to help her. Bruce is truly smitten by Josefine.
This true story is told in alternating chapters that reveal the experiences that both Bruce and Josefine endured, until they met again, by chance. He is sent to a farm on a work detail. The farm happens to belong to her aunt and uncle. In the midst of the horror of this war, with the danger of death at their doorstep every day, these two unusual strangers, fall in love.
Even their love is dangerous. Bruce often sneaks out of the prison to meet Josefine. There are spies everywhere hoping to catch someone in order to curry favor with the Germans, so they must be ultra-careful. Josefine has been ferrying escaped prisoner and Allied Soldiers to safety. Bruce begins to help her. When their trysts are discovered, her aunt and uncle’s farm is searched. They are safely hidden in a special niche for that purpose. When the war intrudes further, and Josefine is in great danger, they are driven apart. Will their love endure?
As their story is told, the atrocities committed by the Nazis are palpable. Wholesale murder of innocent people in retaliation for resistance is not uncommon. Torture is standard for anyone imprisoned, especially if they are suspected of being traitors to Hitler’s cause. Humiliation and abuse are the stock and trade of the Nazis.
There is great attention paid to detail in an attempt to write the story of Bruce and Josefine, their love and their resistance efforts, as accurately as possible. Since both Bruce and Josefine are no longer alive, it sometimes had to be pieced together using a bit of poetic license. The constant is that no matter how many books one reads, there is always something new to learn, and be shocked about, with regard to the Nazis, their hate and their behavior. The book is particularly interesting because it is not about Jewish prisoners or Jewish victims, but rather about the POW’s and those people trapped in towns invaded by Hitler. It is also about the brutality of Russia, as conqueror, which was as bad as Germany, as invader.
Fear, jealousy and greed motivated most of those who supported Hitler. What motivated Hitler, his supporters, and the soldiers who fought to further The Third Reich will never be known. It is impossible to determine what would cause such evil and blind obedience. They committed unspeakable atrocities and thought they could get away with it. Can that behavior ever be justified or forgiven? What inspires a hero or a heroine? From where does their courage spring?
The author of this book is the son-in-law of Bruce and Josefine. He tells their story. It is a worthwhile story that should be widely read. Perhaps if we learn from the past, we won’t make the same mistakes in the future.

I could not put this book down, once I started reading it! I basically stayed up most of the night, and finished it by the morning light.

I found the characters to be realized, individuals of depth, determination, kindness, and caring. It isn't often that I find that in books.

The factual information is compelling, and it is based on a true story of a prisoner of war Bruce Murray, and Josefine Lobnik.

I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to LibraryThing Early Readers for this amazing book.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I couldn't wait for it to get here and I thought it might not come because it took way longer than usual, but it finally arrived!! And I finished it in a day and a half, it was that good.
Based on a true story of a Slovene resistance fighter, Josefine Lobnik, and a POW from New Zealand, Bruce Murray.
Bruce gets his first glimpse of Josefine when she slips a note through the wire of the prison where he is being held trying to get information about her missing brother. Although Bruce does not see her again for a long while he continues to think of the mysterious woman who so bravely defied the odds and dared to attempt contact despite guards all around.
When they do meet again, the war is heading towards the end, Josefine is taking more and more risks with her participation in the resistance and Bruce has already made several failed attempts at escape.
What got me about this book is the miracle of it all. These two went through so much, they faced impossible odds that were against them. How they managed to survive all the trials they did, being prisoner of war, Josephine having her whole family separated, not knowing if they were dead or alive, the German occupation, betrayals by both friends and enemies. It is so incrediably unbelievable what they went through. It seemed that everyone and everything were against these two getting together.
I loved that this is based on a real story and that most of the incrediable events really did take place. Even though this is a story of war, it is more than that. This is a wonderful love story, showing how even out of the ugliest of times something pure and beautiful can arise.
This book is well researched, and beautifully written, the characters came alive for me, making it very fast and easy to read.
I recommend for all historical fiction lovers. Along the lines of The Nightengale, or Resistance Women, I believe this is a must read for 2021.

Bruce Murray is a twenty-five year-old ANZAC soldier who is captured after a battle in Greece and interred in a German POW camp in Slovenia. Josefine Lobnik is an eighteen-year-old Slovene partisan, ferrying documents and weapons across the Austrian border and helping escaped Allies. They first meet when she passes a note through the camp fence seeking information about her missing brother. The two meet again when Bruce is a forced laborer on her cousin′s farm, and they fall in love. The story is both a familiar wartime love story and something a bit different, and I think the difference is in how it is told.

″A story can be interesting, but the way in which it is told determines whether it enthralls the reader and does justice to the subject,″ writes Doug Gold in his acknowledgments, and in The Note through the Wire, I think he succeeds. He starts with the dashing story of how Bruce and Josefine meet. Bruce′s story includes best mates, daring escapes, and derring-do. Josefine′s includes a family of partisans, heroic deeds, and defiance even when tortured. It could easily have become a caricature, an over-the-top swashbuckler. But in Gold′s hands it becomes the story of two people, whom you might meet at a pub and swap stories with over a pint. Nothing too heavy or maudlin, a little righteous indignation, a few jokes and exaggerated swagger. The result is a story that feels intimate, yet not all-knowing.

The author was privy to Bruce and Josefine′s stories, as well as those of other family members, because he was their son-in-law. The anecdotes he heard over the years lend vivacity, and he corroborates what he can with primary sources. But the story remains theirs, as they experienced and remember it. In this way, I think Gold succeeds in writing an enthralling story that does justice to its subjects. It′s a warm family story that kept me turning the pages, and a glimpse into their sliver of the war on the Slovenian-Austrian border.½

This is a very engaging book about a New Zealand POW interned in Slovenia during World War II and a young Slovenian woman who was active in the anti-Nazi underground. The POW, Bruce, had twice attempted to escape from POW camps in rash, unplanned actions. He was easily recaptured each time. Eventually he was sent to work on a farm during the day, returning to the camp each night. At the farm Bruce was reacquainted with Josefine, who he had met earlier when she approached the fence at the camp inquiring about her brother. The obstacles the couple had to overcome to be reunited after the war were monumental. Bruce fell into the hands of the Russians who set about his repatriation to New Zealand. It took two years of dealing with red tape for the couple to finally be reunited in 1947.

Excellent read, even if there may be a considerable amount of artistic license applied.½

"The Note Through the Wire" by Doug Gold is an incredible book that I could not put down! It is a beautiful story of a WWII POW and a resistor. What is so remarkable is that this is a true story and the author should be commended for a job well done in telling his in-law's story. It is very well-written and I highly recommend to all!

In this true love story that defies all odds, Josefine Lobnik, a Yugoslav partisan heroine, and Bruce Murray, a New Zealand soldier, discover love in the midst of a brutal war. Bruce lived in New Zealand when WWII started. He had a good job and loved to go out drinking with his two best friends. They joined the Army as a chance to see the world but when they finally got into combat, it was another story. Bruce got captured by the Germans and was sent to a POW camp. The living conditions were not the best but they were able to get packages from the Red Cross and mail from home. When Bruce was walking around the compound on a Sunday, a woman approached the barbed wire and passed him a note asking for help finding her brother. That woman was Josefine Lobnik, an underground resistance fighter who was fighting for freedom from the Germans. After several unsuccessful escapes, Bruce was assigned to work on a local farm. By chance, it is the farm of Josefine's aunt and uncle, where she is hiding because she's been betrayed and has a price on her head. They begin to talk and fall in love. This is a story about finding love during the war and their struggles to be together. They both face torture, betrayal and sacrifice along with way but eventually love wins!

Be sure to read the author's notes at the end about their life after the war. He also mentions the letters that they kept that shows how difficult it was for them to be together after the war ended.