As a supporter of UK small presses – I was naturally predisposed to like this book: its published by the Norfolk based publisher Salt (whose books rather wonderfully are normally sent with a handwritten postcard and a packet of salt enclosed) and written by Meike Ziervogel, the publisher of Pereine Press.However, even without this predisposition there is much to like here, in this ultimately uplifting tale of war-induced mass migration.The book commences:Once upon a time there was a German tow [...]

The Photographer by Meike Ziervogel is proof that a consuming and fully detailed story may be told in under two hundred pages. The depths of the novel are to be found as much in what is implicit as from the elegantly crafted prose. There is insight and interest, flavour and nuance. Such writing deserves appreciation.Set in Germany around the time of the Second World War, the protagonist is a young woman named Trude who lives with her controlling mother, Agatha. The generation before suffered har [...]

Set against the backdrop of the Second World War The Photographer by Meike Ziervogel is a deeply moving story inspired by her own family history. At the end of the war eleven million people fled from east to west lives destroyed by war. This is a story that is so beautifully written and a story with so much packed into under 200 pages The couple at the heart of this story are Albert and Trude who met in 1933, Albert is a photographer and his photographs have appeared in magazines in Paris and Be [...]

Meike Ziervogel’s The Photographer is a beautiful and moving work of art, told in a series of vivid and visual chapters like snapshots. With its underlying message of acceptance, forgiveness and hope, The Photographer should be an obligatory teen-read on every school curriculum. It is a perfect book to kick off a book club.Reviewed on The BookBlast® Diary 2017

The horror of what the main characters went through during the war is to be found in stark one liners which heighten the awfulness by understating it. I assume this was intentional and found that it worked very well.

One of my 'finds' of 2017 - beautifully written, very moving, with some of the best writing from the point of view of a child that you'll find. Exquisitely good.

Although set against a backdrop of terrible turmoil during and after the Second World War, The Photographer is a quiet novel about migration, family and life’s inevitable ups and downs. The voice, which flutters between points of view, is simple and understatedFull review Migration past and present #amreading annegoodwin.weebly/1/post/