All the Days of My Life

Jo-Anne Berthelsen, Ark House

All the Days of My Life is the second part of the novelised life story of a Czechoslovakian musician who became an underground worker during World War II. The first book, Heléna, ends with Heléna moving to Australia after losing her father, husband and many of her friends in the war and the land and the businesses she inherited to the new communist government.

Now Heléna must negotiate a new land that wants factory workers; not concert pianists with middling English. Heléna endures a number of humiliations before she is able to make music her career again.

All the Days of My Life covers a number of issues, including infertility, the problems of new migrants, marriage difficulties, late motherhood and dealing with several losses. Heléna faces what was an enormously difficult life with an equally enormous faith in God.

I liked All the Days of My Life better than Heléna. The characters are less perfect, more vulnerable and the language less stilted.

Women who enjoy Christian novels that deal with real-life issues will enjoy All the Days of My Life.

Katy Gerner