The Silver Sword, by Ian Serraillier

The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier is a piece of Children’s Literature, sort of The Railway Children meets the ‘eastern front’ of the Second World War. Yes it’s grim. Yes it’s stirring. And yes, it’s really very good.

          The story is about a Polish family called the Balickis – as the book tells us right at the beginning – who have become separated during the Nazi occupation of Poland. The father, a teacher by the name of Joseph, winds up in an internment camp for a trifling matter; Margrit, his Swiss wife, is later arrested by storm troopers in the middle of the night, leaving their three children Ruth, Edek and Bronia to fend for themselves in the streets of war-torn Warsaw. The book begins with Joseph’s daring escape from the prison-camp and his search through the city for any trace of his children, of which he finds none. He meets a young thief called Jan, and after entrusting to him a small silver letter-opener in the shape of a sword, tells him about his children and his plan to escape to Switzerland, then flees Warsaw to search for his wife.

          Ruth, Edek and Bronia meanwhile have been living in a bombed-out cellar. Edek, a boy of twelve, is forced to steal food and to smuggle supplies around the city just to help his siblings survive. In their bombed-out cellar, Ruth starts up a sort of underground school to look after other lost and orphaned children. Edek is later caught by the occupying forces and dragged off to Germany to be used as slave labour, and for the following two years Ruth and Bronia hear nothing of him. But one day, as the Nazi empire crumbles under the westward advance of the Soviet Russians, and under the eastward advance of the other guys, a strange boy turns up unconscious outside Ruth’s cellar-based school, with nothing but a box of treasures and a straggly, temperamental cock. It is none other than the thief Jan, whom years before had met and helped Joseph Balicki; Ruth and Bronia’s father! He still has the silver sword, and he still remembers the plan for the family to meet up in Switzerland. With this new ray of hope Ruth and Bronia, with Jan tagging along for the ride, set out across ravaged Europe to find Edek and reunite with their parents.

          Far be it for me to use buzzwords like ‘uplifting’ and ‘inspiring’, I can at least tell you that this is a damn good story about young people struggling through hardship and adversity. Serraillier’s writing is clear and direct, yet not patronisingly so; he tells a story, and he tells it well. Like all great Children’s Literature it is accessible to adults as well as children, and the serious subject matter coupled with its broad writing style makes it affecting for all ages. The characters are distinct and relatable, and not difficult to get attached to. I wish I had read it when I was younger, but I’m not too disappointed to have read it now, if you catch my drift.

          Of the various characters, each and every one of them is worthy of praise, and justifies the reader’s fondness for them. There’s Edek, whose quick thinking gets the family away from danger right at the start; there’s Ruth, who selflessly leads the others through their various trials and guides them along the straight and narrow; little Bronia who is forced to experience childhood in unthinkable conditions, yet who manages to find joy in it anyway; and all the people who help and hinder the family on their tremendous journey who, despite being incidental characters, are still definitely characters. But the biscuit goes to Jan, the young thief who having lived most of his life alone in the ruins of Nazi occupied Warsaw has become something of kleptomaniac and a hoarder. He carries around all his worldly possessions in a wooden box, little trinkets that have nothing but sentimental value to him and which he will never show to anybody. Being mistrustful of people, he has developed a need to bond with animals – like his pet cock, Jimpy, whom he takes everywhere with him. Travelling across Europe at the end of the Second World War is one thing, but try doing it along with a natural-born thief who keeps a pet chicken at his side.

          An interesting structural choice that Serraillier made whilst writing this book was to break it into two unequal parts. After telling us about the family right at the beginning, he goes on in the first few chapters to detail Joseph Balicki’s escape from the prison camp, and his search to find out what has happened to his wife and children. This is only the first 30 pages or so, and is essentially a preamble before we meet the real main characters, Ruth, Edek, Bronia and Jan. With this switch in focus early on in the story I expected to have a dual narrative of some sort, with the story of the children interspersed with sections about Joseph Balicki’s search for his wife and his own journey to Switzerland, but this is not the case. The father only reappears at the end. We get a short story at the beginning which sets up the eventual goal, and then the rest of the book details the lives and journey of the four children (okay, so two of them are teenagers, but give me a break). This isn’t a criticism; just pointing out that it’s an unusual thing for a novel to do. It’s quite helpful for setting up the whole plot, and does not take too long to do.

          In conclusion, The Silver Sword is an amazing book. The story of a family struggling to reunite as a result of one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. It is broad, direct, and moving. It is quite short and only took two days to read, yet it is still something of an ‘emotional rollercoaster’, if you would permit me to use a cliché for one lone, delicious moment. I heartily recommend it to all sentient humans out there.

Bibliovaria

Serraillier, Ian. The Silver Sword. Puffin Books. (1960 [First Published 1956])