The Star on the Grave by Linda Margolin Royal

I first read about Chiune Sugihara in There, Where the Pepper Grows by Bem le Hunte with a book club, several years ago. It was the story of a colony in India made up of European Jewish refugees who had been issued visas by the diplomat, Chiune Sugihara, to transit through Japan to their eventual destination in India.

The Star on the Grave is a novel based on fact about another group of Jewish Refugees also given visas by Chiune Sugihara, against the orders of his government, to get out of Europe and into Japan. He helped 6,000 people in this way and his memory is now honoured by Israel. 

This is the story of Rachel who grew up in Australia and didn’t discover that she was Jewish until she was 21. It is a powerful story in which Rachel accompanies her grandmother on a journey to Japan for a reunion with former refugees, with the aim of meeting up with their saviour, Chiune Sugihara. Rachel is learning to come to terms with the idea that she was born into a culture of which she has had no previous knowledge. Linda Margolin Royal’s portrayal  of Rachel is sensitive and deeply moving. Rachel’s newly awakened awareness of her previously unknown identity and, therefore, of her father and grandmother is an enormous turn-around for a twenty-one year old to face. 

The book is written in the present tense which I was hoping to become comfortable with but never quite did. It is an important story and, for me, would have had a bigger impact if it had been in the past tense. That said, it is uplifting to read about a true hero, and Chiune Sugihara, with his bravery and compassion, definitely fits into that mould.

Published by Affirm Press