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    Shadows Over Paradise
    Shadows Over Paradise
    Shadows Over Paradise
    Audiobook10 hours

    Shadows Over Paradise

    Written by Isabel Wolff

    Narrated by Susan Duerden and Wanda McCaddon

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Jenni Clark is a ghostwriter. She loves to immerse herself in other people's stories-a respite from her own life and from a relationship that appears to be nearing its end. Jenni's latest assignment takes her to a coastal hamlet in England, where she has agreed to pen the memoir of an elderly farm owner named Klara. Jenni assumes the project will be easy: a quiet, ordinary tale of a life well lived.

    But Klara's story is far from quiet. She recounts the tale of a family torn apart by World War II and of disgraceful acts committed against a community in the Japanese prison camps on the Pacific island paradise of Java. As harrowing details emerge and stunning truths come to light, Jenni is compelled to confront a secret she's spent a lifetime burying.

    Weaving together the lives of two very different women, Isabel Wolff has created a captivating novel of love, loss, and hope that reaches across generations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 10, 2015
    ISBN9781494572846
    Shadows Over Paradise
    Author

    Isabel Wolff

    Isabel Wolff was born in Warwickshire, read English at Cambridge and is the Sunday Times bestselling author of ten novels, all published worldwide. She lives in London with her family.

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    Reviews for Shadows Over Paradise

    4/5

    48 ratings23 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Jenni is a ghostwriter haunted by a tragedy in her past. She and Rick, her partner, are experiencing a relationship crisis over disagreement about whether or not to have children. They attend a wedding, where Jenni finds out about an opportunity to ghost-write a memoir for the mother of one of the wedding guests. She decides to take the commission, which brings her to the location of her past tragedy.

      Her subject, Klara, was interned by the Japanese in Java, Indonesia (then called Dutch East Indies), during WWII. Klara and her family experience tremendous suffering. Through interviews, Jenni serves as a sympathetic listener, as Klara gradually discloses memories she has never discussed with her family. In talking through their mutual tragedies, they find a measure of solace.

      Klara’s story serves as the primary focus of the narrative, and it is set in Java. Jenni’s backstory is discussed during breaks in the interviews. The book is obviously well-researched. The fictional Klara is based on historic truth and the sources are included in a bibliography at the end.

      It is multi-layered and well-crafted. The author has done a great job with the intertwined stories. We gradually learn more about the people and what happened to them. I found myself engrossed in the story and looked forward to picking it up.

      I often tell people that there are so many lesser-known stories of WWII, and this is an example. We get a grounding in what was going on in Indonesia at the time – the Dutch colonial residents, the landscapes, the local people, the racial prejudices, the Japanese occupation, the transports, the aftermath leading to Indonesian independence, and all of it told through an emotional story of one family. Add to that the sympathetic character of the ghostwriter, and it is just a wonderful reading experience.

      It reminds me a bit of The Garden of Evening Mists, which is set in Malaysia during the Japanese occupation and is another book I highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      Some readers relegate Wolff to the realm of chick lit. This novel should persuade them that she is much more. The setting and historical period are depicted evocatively and the characters-both in the past and the present-are finely drawn. Really a pleasure to read and in my case, re-read.
    • 5/5
      I really loved this book. In the past, I have read other Isabel Wolff books. She has really matured as a writer. This book is about a ghost writer who lucks on to Klara ' s story of life in a Japanese prison camp. She also has to face up to her own past and Klara's ' honesty helps her do that. I'm trying to do this on my phone and it is nearly impossible.
    • 5/5
      Shadows over ParadiseThis was a remarkably well researched book. I’ve read many books by Isabel Wolff and enjoyed all of them, but this one stands out in terms of historical research. The story of Klara during World War II on Java was fascinating and frankly something I’d never thought about before. I knew that the United States interned Japanese people here during the war, but I just never thought about where else such a terrible thing happened. The conditions were clearly dreadful on Java for the Dutch who had been working and living there in the rubber plantations.I will never look at an egg the same way again.I enjoyed this book a great deal; both the story that takes place in the past and Jenni’s story that takes place in current times. If I had one complaint it would be the rather drab cover of this book. Frankly, I would never have noticed it in the shelves of my local bookstore and that would be a shame. Thank you to Early Readers for the opportunity to read this book.
    • 4/5
      Jenni ghostwrites Klara's life story. Both share the death of their brother from tragic circumstances. It is a story about the bonds of love within a family and how they can be shaken. It is also about the horror of living in an internment camp in Indonesia under Japanese occupation. It never ceases to astound me that people can survive such dreadful conditions.
    • 4/5
      By far one of the most well researched historical fiction novels that I've read. Wolff does and incredible job of depicting the horrors of the interments on Java during World War II. She incorporated a well written story of love and responsibility that wove through the War story. I highly recommend this for history buffs and those who enjoy great literary fiction. Bravo!!!
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed Shadows Over Paradise very, very much. I fail to see, however, why Bantam (I assume US) would chance the name from Ghostwritten -- a far more memorable name! I loved the intertwining of Jenni and Klaras stories and the outcome. I found Klaras story far more compelling than Jennis.
    • 5/5
      Many thanks to librarything.com for providing Shadows Over Paradise by Isabel Wolff in return for my honest review.I loved Shadows Over Paradise. It captured my attention from page one and never let go. The story is about two women, one older, one younger with seemingly little in common. However, a closer look reveals that these women are kindred spirits. Jennie, a professional ghost writer, is hired to memorialize Klara's memoir. She is struggling with a failing relationship and the employment opportunity provides a well needed break for the couple to reevaluate their feelings for one another.The book alternates between Klara's childhood memories, the atrocities she and her family endured from the Japanese during WWII, and the present day. As Klara's story unfolds and her long hidden secrets are released, Jennie gains the strength to face her own demons. The two women help one another to heal.I haven't read such a good historical novel in a very long time. This will be on my shortlist of books that I will recommend to friends and family. The only minor weakness was the ending. I wish the ending was as powerful and satisfying as the rest of the book. It did, however, tell a complete story. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book very, very much. It is the story of Jenni, a ghostwriter for those who have a story to tell but don't want to write it themselves and Klara, an elderly woman who survived the Japanese internment camps in Java during World War II. Both are haunted by guilt from losing their younger brothers, Klara during the war and Jenni during a family holiday when she was a child. As Klara tells her story to Jenni they share a cathartic experience and are able to share things they never thought the would be able to with each other. This is a beautiful story with likeable characters and a heartfelt ending of healing. I knew about the Japanese internment camps but not in so much detail, the author did a great job on research. Very highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Isabel Wolff is one of my favorite writers and "Shadows Over Paradise" did not disappoint! This book was so easy to get lost in and ended before I was ready. Usually I avoid books about WWII, but Wolff's story put a whole new perspective on the war and how people's lives were impacted. Most books are about Europe during the war, so reading about Java was amazing and really brought to light the fact that it was a world war and not just a war of the west. I don't want to gloss over this part of the book and forget to mention the characters in the story and that most readers will come to care deeply about them. Great book!
    • 3/5
      The subject matter of this book was very interesting. I like when an author takes a subject that has been written about countless times (WWII) and introduces the reader to a little known part of it. In this case that was the Japanese occupation of the Island of Java during the war. This book has two main characters, Jenni and Klara. Jenni ends up ghost writing Klara's memoir. I thought Klara's memories were fascinating, awful, and important. However, how they were presented was at times boring despite the gravity of the subject matter. The memories got better and held my interest more as the book went on, but Jenni's story fell a little flat for me. Overall, I liked the book, but at times it lacked emotion and because of the subject it should have been very emotional. I would recommend this book, if only for all the new information I learned.
    • 4/5
      Haunting account of two women who each suffered tragedies in their childhood and the common bond that unites them.Jenni is a young ghostwriter hired to write the memoirs of 79 year old Klara who spent a portion of her childhood in a prisoner of war camp on Java. As Klara recounts her unspeakable pain and suffering, Jenni draws strength from her story and is able to confront the ghosts of her own past. The friendship that develops between the two bring them to a state of healing, understanding and forgiveness.Well written novel highlighting the invasion of Java and the devastating effects on untold lives.
    • 5/5
      First off I have to say this novel has been added to my list of favorites for this year. I received a Shadows Over Paradise as an early release from LT, once I started reading I had a very difficult time putting it down. (Work does get in the way some days). The book centers around 2 main characters; Jenni , a ghost writer with a painful, guilt ridden past and Klara who also struggles with ghosts of her childhood in war torn Java. The women meet when Jenni is asked to ghost write Klara's memoir. The novel transports the reader back and forth through time - from WWII to present day. Bringing two very unique women together sharing similar pain, love and healing.
    • 3/5
      Book told in 2 points of view by way of using a ghost writer who is helping a woman write her memoirs for her family. Jenni is haunted by a tragedy that happened in her family when she was young. Klara too. But Klara's took place during WWII while in an internment camp held by the Japanese in Java. It was o.k. Did begin to feel like a vehicle for the author to share all of the research she did for that time period/place -- but I tend to feel that way about a lot of historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      This was a richly written novel with wonderful plots and sub-plots over the course of the story line. It unfolds slowly but as a reader, I enjoyed every moment of the unveiling of the stories of Klara and Jenni.Jenni is a ghost writer. She writes other people's stories and loves her work. She is hired on by Klara's family to tell her story because she has never really spoken of her past. As the story unfolds, you learn the terrible things that Klara suffered during the war and while interred at a women's and childrens camp at the hands of the Japanese. She is haunted by what happened in her past and the telling of the full story is painful and yet liberating for her. As she tells her story, secrets from Jenni's past are also unveiled as she talks with Klara. She blames herself for tragic circumstances that happened when she was a child.Overall, this is a wonderful novel. Reader received a complimentary copy from Library Thing Early Reviewers program.
    • 4/5
      Jenni is a ghostwriter. When she is called upon to record Klara's story, Jenni is instantly excited, until she realizes she will have to travel to the place where her baby brother died. Conflicted about her guilt over her brother, and arguing with her boyfriend about having children, she is in an emotionally sensitive state. The chapters alternate between Jenni's struggles, and Klara's story. During WWII, Klara, along with her mother and brother, is imprisoned in an internment camp ran by the Japanese. The book took a while to really get started, but when it did, I was hooked. I found Klara's story utterly captivating. Jenni's journey was a bit less interesting to me, but she grew on me throughout the book. Overall, well worth a read!
    • 5/5
      From the moment I picked up this book, I could not put it down. The main character, Jenni, has a dark secret, one that she has not shared with anyone. She is a likable and intriguing character who, through the meeting of Klara, a woman with her own past to contend with, is able to open up and confront a dark incident from her childhood. Isabel Wolff does a remarkable job of weaving the two women's stories together to highlight their strengths and to help them come to terms with their pasts.
    • 3/5
      I read this book as a LibraryThing early reviewer title.The book, I read, was titled Shadows over Paradise. There is also a version titled Ghostwritten, published in 2014.The two books appear to be the same. Which ever title you read, is about a ghost writer who accepts a commission to write the story of a ninety year old woman who survived internment camps in Java during WWII . The monstrous conditions that men faced on the Pacific Islands was experienced by their wives and children in no less a horrific manner. Balanced by the ghost writers own back story and set in Cornwall, the book moves back and forth in time. What emerges are two women trying to come to terms with the past and move forward.Replete with the details of life before, during and after the war in Java, this is excellent historical fiction.
    • 5/5
      Two women, one young and one old, brought together through a story of triumph over adversity. The younger woman, Jenni Clark is a ghostwriter, who has been asked to help the older woman, Klara Tregear, write her memoirs. Jenni loves ghostwriting, she loves hearing peoples stories and helping them get published; so she is excited to do this project for Klara, until she realizes where Klara lives: a place that brings back upsetting memories from Jenni’s past. And even though Klara’s family really wants their mom to do this, Klara is reluctant to talk about the disturbing parts of her childhood; where her family was taken as prisoners by the Japanese in Java during WWII. Both women have memories locked inside; hidden memories that have defined how they live their life. Both of them need to trust and take down their walls so they can share their stories and begin to heal.Isabel Wolff has written an emotionally charged novel that I couldn’t stop reading. People and places come alive under her skillful writing. My only warning is that this has adult content, especially in the prison camps. I kept thinking about what’s happening to innocent people caught in the war zones right now. Another thing you may need to know is that I read this under the title Shadows over Paradise, which will be released in the US soon, but it is available in England under the title Ghostwritten. I’m definitely giving this book a 5 star rating.
    • 4/5
      ‘This was Polvarth, a place I’d vowed never to return to, yet which I saw, in my mind, every day.It was my idea.I closed my eyes as the memories rushed back.We did it all by ourselves.’Jenni Clark is a ghostwriter that takes the ghosts of a persons past and molds them into a story. Her most recent commission is Klara, a woman that survived after being confined as a child in a camp in the midst of World War II. Klara currently resides in a town called Polvarth, a town that Jenni spent time there and where the ghosts of her own past currently reside. The opportunity presented to her in this job though is enough to make her willing to finally face those ghosts after all these years.Jenni has run into trouble with her relationship to Rick; he wants to have children and she does not. The two agree that maybe this trip to Polvarth will give each of them a chance to reflect on their lives together and hopefully help them to work things out. The issue behind her refusal to have children stems from a childhood incident that she’s never told him, or anyone for that matter. The tragedy is one she blames herself for and it isn’t until Klara shares her own story does she realize how similar the two are, and how both women need to find it in their hearts to finally forgive themselves in order to truly move on. Jenni’s story may have been mostly a side-story but it was still a vital piece of the whole story that was interwoven and resolved beautifully.Stories about World War II, especially when they are centered around a concentration camp, are some of the hardest stories for me to read yet I’m completely incapable of passing one up. They are typically all stories about general devastation but Klara’s story adds a piece of history to WWII that I didn’t previously know much about: the Japanese invasion of the Dutch colony of Java where Klara grew up. The natives of the island were left in peace but any and all European residents of the island were forced into concentration camps. Her story details being separated from family, the incessant degradation, the back-breaking work, the hunger, the sickness, and inevitably the death. They were constantly forced to travel on foot to new camps which were generally worse than the camp they left behind. Even after the war was finally over and they were no longer being held against their will at the camps, they were forced to stay when the natives wished to cause them harm for what happened to their country at the hands of the Japanese. It was of course incredibly painful to read but Shadows Over Paradise did a brilliant job at bringing this unforgettable time in history to life.
    • 5/5
      Just finished this last night and it was an awesome read. Loved every minute of it. Great writing and great story. Highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      Jenni is a ghostwriter, who works with other people to help them tell their stories, but she hates talking about herself. She is desperate to keep a childhood tragedy firmly in the past, and enjoy her current and apparently happy life. Her boyfriend is a deputy headteacher, and seems to have accepted that Jenni doesn’t want children, but he seems to be reconsidering. Then Jenni is commissioned to work with an elderly Dutch lady, Klara, on an account of her experience of internment by the Japanese in Indonesia during WWII. When they first meet, Jenni admires Klara's collection of Virago Modern Classics, and they talk about Elizabeth Taylor and Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.This dual narrative novel, combining stories of past and present, is a really good read, although Jenni’s story is overshadowed by Klara’s traumatic childhood experiences. Isabel Wolff clearly did plenty of background research and Klara’s story, drawing on several real life memoirs acknowledged at the end of the novel, is compelling and convincing. I’ve read several previous novels by Isabel Wolff, and she isn’t the first chicklit writer to combine the genre with a darker, more serious historical story. She does it quite effectively, and although Klara’s story is far more interesting and memorable, I did want to know how Jenni would come to terms with her past and resolve her own dilemma.I received a free copy of this book through the Amazon Vine review programme.
    • 5/5
      This is a bit of a diversion for Isabel Wolff, normally known for her lighter novels. This book is a dual timeline story of Jenni, a woman who is employed as a ghostwriter to write the memoirs of Klara, a Dutch woman who was in a Japanese internment camp during World War II and who suffered terribly along with many other people, In alternate chapters, Jenni comes to terms with a terrible part of her past whilst Klara tells her story, most of it for the first time ever.I really loved this book and found it very easy to read, despite the subject matter which at times is harrowing. The plot device of having a ghostwriter to listen to and record Klara's memoirs is clever and unique and really worked. I found Klara's story to be very well written but at times Jenni's sections seemed a little laboured. Overall though I thought this was an excellent read and one that completely absorbed me.