★★★★★ We are broken. We fix each other.

The War That Saved My Life

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The War That Saved My Life is a love story. That is a true statement, but misleading. When you read "It's a love story", your mind immediately goes to romance, and it is not that kind of love story. The three parties in this love affair are ten-year-old Ada Smith, her brother Jamie, and unrelated spinster Susan Smith.

Ada and Jamie live with their mother in London. They are filthy and sick -- their mother, whom we know only as "Mam" is not the nurturing type. Ada has a club foot. To Mam, this is a shameful thing. She keeps Ada confined in their one-room flat, so as not to let the world see her shame.

Susan lives alone in a small house in Kent (which is roughly the southeast corner of England). She had a friend, Becky, with whom she lived until Becky's death a few years ago. Susan is estranged from her own father and family. Susan has not gotten over Becky. At night she sits in the dark alone in her lonely home and sinks into sorrow.

The story, narrated in the first person by Ada, begins in 1939. Hitler's Germany has just invaded Poland, everyone knows that England will soon be at war with Germany, and that German bombers will eventually come to London. London's children are evacuated to the country for their safety. Jamie is to be sent away. Ada, who is not worth saving, is to be left behind.

Not wanting to be separated from Jamie, Ada, who has taught herself to walk, painfully, despite her bad foot, takes her fate into her hands. She sneaks out of the flat early on the departure morning and escapes with Jamie to his school, where she hopes to be caught up in the evacuation with him. Ada and Jamie are taken on the train to Kent. No one wants these two starveling kids, least of all Susan, who has never wanted children at all. Because of their mutual reluctance, Ada and Jamie, the last children to be chosen, end up with Susan.

Ada and Susan are broken people. Susan is broken by the rejection of her family and the death of her only real friend. Ada is more profoundly damaged. Her bad foot is the least of her problems. Ada believes she is what her mother told her she was -- a repellent thing. (Jamie, for the record, is basically fine -- nothing wrong with him that can't be solved by good food, together with a little medicine and education.)

Ada is in fact a splendid person. She is bold, smart, and above all overflowing with ambition and initiative. Susan is the first person in Ada's life to see her.

Miss Smith grinned. I didn’t know why. “Skeptical child,” she said, making me frown even harder. She grabbed the end of my plait and swung it. “Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution”—she was saying it wrong. I scowled—“will bring you victory, my dear.”

And Ada and Jamie are what Susan needs.

And, well, I've already given away the punch line. It's a love story. It's the best kind of love story -- one in which people make each other better.

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