Inspiring Young Readers
A World Between Us by Lydia Syson
Writing a novel for teenagers about the Spanish Civil War and making it engaging and truthful to the complexities of that conflict is quite an undertaking. It must be even harder knowing that there are classics out there written for adults and produced by some of literature’s great names. So I think it’s hats off to Lydia Syson for producing something that is both engaging, convincing and, perhaps most impressively, skilfully constructed and written. Although the primary market for this book seems to be the young adult audience, I suspect it has tremendous crossover appeal and plenty of older readers will also find this an unputdownable treat.
One of its virtues is that its core story is basically very simple – a love triangle that involves a young trainee nurse (Felicity known as Felix), a young Jewish working class activist, Nat, and a middle class trainee journalist George who, when we first meet him, is a kind but apolitical young man typical of his generation. The simplicity of this story allows Syson to focus on creating an historically truthful narrative of the role of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and it is the research detail that gives the book its texture.
The book begins with Felix finding herself inadvertently embroiled in the Battle of Cable Street – the East End’s resistance to the Fascist Black Shirt insurgency – and needing to nurse a young, fascinating Jewish man with a head injury. This is the start of a blossoming romance between the two which is cut short when Nat decides to volunteer for duty in Spain. However, Felix has been politicised and a life of frivolity and non-involvement is something she can’t bear the thought of. She uses a holiday trip to Paris with her brother and her other suitor, George, to seize the chance to run away, volunteer for Spain and go in search of Nat.
The story then follows three parallel paths – Nat’s time as a foot soldier in the International Brigade, Felix’s role as a medic just behind the front line and George as he uses his status as a reporter to get to Spain in search of Felix. As we move from one strand of the story to another it becomes increasingly clear that the narratives are converging and that at some point the three fates will become entwined – which they inevitably do.
I’m not going to be tempted into spoilers about how the story plays out and how the love triangle resolves itself because this is the heart of the book and you’ll want to find that out for yourself. What I’d rather do is point you to the way the author manages to give you a riveting history lesson at the say time. I have read a lot about the Spanish Civil War and so there wasn’t too much here that was new for me but I can most certainly see that quite a lot of this will be revelatory to younger readers who haven’t come across this before. Our cultural memories of the First and Second World War get plenty of space in the media but we seem to have airbrushed the significance of the Spanish Civil War out of our history and we have no formal honours for those Britons who gave their lives to defend democracy and fight Fascism when their own Government was craven in the face of this menace.
Whilst I thought the book was a great read, it’s not without its flaws. I found some of the characterisation a little weak – George’s rapid conversion from caring and concerned to committed and involved seemed just too precipitous and the conclusion of his storyline rather too convenient. I also found Felix’s willingness to switch her emotions between the two young men sat uncomfortably with her growth as a person.
However, this is largely nit-picking stuff. It’s a highly recommended read for anyone wanting an exciting story - and a politically aware one too.
Terry Potter
October 2016