“The Three Names of Ludka”, by Gisela Pou, a moving story about the power of memory

We are in 1974 and Ludka Nowak, a nine-year-old girl, arrives in Barcelona accompanied by a hundred orphan children who left Poland after being kidnapped by the Nazis and subjected to an intense process of “Germanization”. The Second World War left a deep mark on them and their families. The International Red Cross and the Polish consulate are doing everything possible to ensure that the children can migrate to Spain and be welcomed in the Catalan capital, where the first Polish school in the region is founded.

As the authorities search for their families, the children reclaim the essence of their language and culture, which was stolen from them when they were tricked into believing that everything about them was wrong and needed to be corrected.

You may be interested: What if Judas had not betrayed Jesus? Emmanuel Carrère plays at twisting the destiny of humanity

Ludka befriends Emma, ​​a girl of her own age, and with her support she will be able to reminisce about episodes from her past and regain her real name.

“Being nine meant being older for a lot of things; Whether I feel like it or not, whether I like it or not, whether I grimace or smile ear to ear, I had to help make the forty beds for the children who came from central Europe ( . . . ) The first time I heard of orphaned children, Mom was sewing the hem of Mrs. Wanda’s stone-colored dress and I was threading needles beside her. Many children who have no father or mother will come to Barcelona for a few months. Poor things, he added, and took the needle I held between thumb and forefinger like a miniature sword. So I could not imagine that the arrival of these children would first deprive me of my mother and then change my life” – (Fragment).

This is the plot of “Ludka’s Three Names”the Spanish writer’s most recent novel Gisele Pou, told in three voices, that of Ludka, that of Emma and that of Isabel, another endearing character in this story. Their stories intertwine to take readers on the road to a true epic of survivors who had to live at the mercy of tyranny and oppression. Despite everything, they manage to find their place in the world.

You may be interested: “The Books of Jacob”, by Olga Tokarczuk, or the story of a man accused of heresy who proclaims himself the Jewish messiah

About 500 pages make up this book written by the agile and evocative pen of Gisele Pou, which was documented on a series of real events that occurred during the last years of World War II. The result is this beautiful and difficult story about the ever-present possibility of finding hope even in the darkest of circumstances.

In “Ludka’s Three Names”readers will reflect, with the author and her characters, around themes such as uprooting, friendship and the possibility of redemption.

It’s interesting to see Pou’s fusion of real and fictional characters. Ludka is a character constructed, for example, through a series of interviews that the author found, where they spoke with some of the children who left Poland for Spain during those years. Another case is that of Wanda Morbitzer Tozerwho appears in the novel and is certainly a real character.

Morbitzer Tozer was the woman who opened the doors for all these children to be welcomed in, working as Chancellor of the Polish Consulate in Barcelona. Thanks to her testimony, the author was able to find other stories that allowed her to complete her plot, such as those of mothers and women, now elderly, who kept the memory of what they lived intact. .

You may be interested: Five books by David Foster Wallace to remember him on his birthday

From “Ludka’s Three Names” This is not just another story about the events of World War II, but a beautiful novel about the strength of memory and the hope that lies in our deepest desires. It is probably one of the best realized works of its author.

Gisele PouCatalan author, holder of a degree in biological sciences, a master’s degree in scriptwriting for television and director of the II Fundación Script Laboratory SGAE. He has been a television writer for twenty-eight years. Currently, he devotes himself exclusively to literature. wrote novels background noise, motherless, “The silence of the vines”, “The Unseen Voice”Everything but the rain and also novels for children and adolescents, among which stand out “The Midnight Girl” (finalist for the Critics’ Prize and the Mandarache Prize) and “Palmyra and the chrysalis effect” (Atrapallibres Prize).

Continue reading: