Traitor: A Novel of World War II

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As the terrific character Lena says, "If I had to blame anybody, I suppose I'd blame myself. My sins are the only ones I'm sure about." In the end, the characters can only judge themselves on how they treat one another -- and we can only judge them based on that. Everyone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago—except Pippa Fitz-Amobi. Only a few mild curse words appear, but the violence pushes this to older teens and above. Given the subject, I'd say adult readers are more likely to appreciate the story.

Traitor: A Novel of World War II by Amanda McCrina

There isn’t one single traitor in the novel. There [are] multiple people who could be considered traitors. There’s the whole question of what it means to be a traitor. Tolya goes through this conflict in himself, [wondering] whether he betrayed his parents by joining the Red Army.Another example: I recently moved across the country and went from having about 800 books with me to a couple dozen, and I haven’t even cried about it. Yet. As a writer, I tend to be attracted to characters who have both internal and external conflict going on. And for me, the easiest way to do that is to write a character who represents two different sides or two conflicting identities. So Tolya, my main character, is representative of the whole conflict in the novel [because he is] both Polish and Ukrainian. He’s a microcosm of this conflict that runs throughout the novel. So his identity crisis is the same identity crisis [that runs] through the book. Poland, 1944. After the Soviet liberation of Lwów from Germany, the city remains a battleground between resistance fighters and insurgent armies, its loyalties torn between Poland and Ukraine. Seventeen-year-old Tolya Korolenko is half Ukrainian, half Polish, and he joined the Soviet Red Army to keep himself alive and fed. When he not-quite-accidentally shoots his unit’s political officer in the street, he’s rescued by a squad of Ukrainian freedom fighters. They might have saved him, but Tolya doesn’t trust them. He especially doesn’t trust Solovey, the squad’s war-scarred young leader, who has plenty of secrets of his own.

Traitor: A Novel of World War II - Common Sense Media

McCrina knows her history, her weaponry, the complex regionalisms involved, and even her natural world, and this shines through in her writing. She also doesn’t pull the punches when it comes to revealing what two boys likely went through during the gut-wrenching loss of their society. I had no idea. I had no idea of the hostility between Poles and Ukranians, or of the betrayals and massacres. I had no idea what a struggle it was just to stay alive when so many people wanted revenge for so many evils. And to retain compassion and loyalty in these circumstances surely required a special sort of heroism. Traitor is a compelling look at what was, to me, a lesser-known part of World War II. In Traitor, we follow two young men who find themselves ensnared in quite the dire battle. I will say before you go any further, this is a fairly brutal novel, which obviously makes sense given the subject matter. But it doesn't shy away from some really violent stuff, so keep that in mind. Traitor is a historical fiction novel is about towns that change occupation like the season. It’s a book that examines truth and loyalty like the truly subjective concept they are. It always matters who is the one asking, who is the one who was able to (re)write history. To decide who are the traitors, the rebels, and the loyal ones. It’s also a book that examines the grey spaces between obedience and rebellion. In collaboration, survival, and sacrifice.A new perspective into the layered facets of WWII. This story focuses on Poland and it's struggles between the Soviet Union, Germany and it's own internal fighting. Why do you think the history of Polish-Ukrainian tensions during WWII isn't widely studied in the United States? Does the story make you want to learn more about Eastern Europe during WWII or historical fiction in general? Ukraine, 1944. Tolya Korolenko kills someone by accident. Afterwards he moves along the streets of Lwow city with his gun. We get to know the names of the streets, but we don’t get a feel of who Tolya is, besides being half Polish and half Ukrainian.

Traitor by Amanda McCrina | Goodreads

I wanted to like this very much, as it’s about a unique part of history that isn’t written about often. And in the moments when I had a single clue, it was often immersive and convincing. It is hard to write anything at all about the plot without giving major points away, so I will just say that it is quite twisty, and fascinating. The title, "Traitor," describes more than one person, for sure, but isn't a perfect characterization of anyone. My biggest takeaway from Traitor: A Novel of World War II was that it felt more like narrative non-fiction than fiction. The plot is more about what happens rather than the people who experiencing the conflict. I wasn't very attached to either Tolya or Aleksey as characters and would've loved more development about who they were as people. He knew how he would die for it—piece by piece, in the dark, in the basement of Brygidki prison—and he knew what his death sentence would say: Tolya Korolenko, traitor to the motherland. That was how his father had died (not in the Brygidki, but in a Soviet prison just the same), and that was what his father’s sentence had said because his father had been Ukrainian and a Soviet citizen. His Polish mother they’d shot against a wall—no sentence, no interrogation. She hadn’t been a traitor to the motherland, only an enemy. Then a betrayal sends them both on the run. And in a city where loyalty comes second to self-preservation, a traitor can be an enemy or a savior—or sometimes both. ReviewI’m going to try to keep this spoiler free. The title is perfect for this book, in my opinion. It fits so many aspects of the novel, not just the betrayal mentioned in the book summary. The point of the story is to shed light on the complex history of Lwow, which was in the hands of different nations and its history is probably unknown to most of the people outside Eastern Europe. The shifting powers meant you had to be careful who you associated yourself with.

Traitor: A Novel of World War II by Amanda McCrina | Goodreads Traitor: A Novel of World War II by Amanda McCrina | Goodreads

Tolya and Aleksey are each brave and do what they feel needs to be done to protect those they care for, Aleksey in particular. They each have complicated pasts and storylines. They want to see the humanity in others and to forgive themselves for mistakes they've made. Each puts others first and risks danger for the safety of others.Poland, 1944 . After the Soviet liberation of Lwów from Germany, the city remains a battleground between resistance fighters and insurgent armies, its loyalties torn between Poland and Ukraine. The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2. Families can talk about the violence in Traitor. Why is it necessary to the story? How does written violence compare to visual violence? Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century. I have tried to read this book in three different sittings, but clearly this book just isn't for me. I don't think there's anything wrong with the book. This was marketed as a fresh take on WWII era books. Normally, I steer clear of WWII books because the majority of them are just retelling the same story. I thought I'd give this one a try. I fell for marketing though because there was nothing new here.