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B. E. Andre
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With Blood and Scars: A Historical Coming-of-Age Novel Kindle Edition

by B. E. Andre (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 out of 5 stars 110 ratings

Review Excerpts


“Andre's skilful story-telling brings out a child's innocence while unflinchingly revealing what an adult would fudge or hide… This touching, sometimes shocking, tender, compassionate and in parts funny story is underpinned by the dislocations between cultures faced by refugees and their descendants, with wonderful, believable characters with whom I laughed, cried and bonded.”


“I could not put the book down. Wonderfully evocative writing which made me laugh and cry... I especially enjoyed the flashbacks to Ania's childhood set in Sixties Manchester within the Polish community.”


“This will help enormously to describing the position of the Polish emigrants’ arrival to the UK after the war, which is something that I have had to spend all my life also explaining.”


“This is a sensitively written and important social documentary about the struggles and loyalties of peoples displaced by war and politics.”



Product Description


Time is running out for Ania. She needs to ask her dying father a vital question; his answer is the key to how she will lead the rest of her life. She must force him to revisit his childhood in Poland in 1944, a time when decisions about survival were made on the spur of the moment, a place where chaos undermined all previous morality. Who is her father really? Can she bear to find out?


Another secret also torments her: an incident she filed in her memory store. Now the police have found the remains of a child in Whalley Range. Should she try to find the gang of friends from her own childhood days? Or should she keep the secret of what happened then?


This coming-of-age novel is a tale of heroic survival against all odds: a life-affirming story of courage and hope set against harrowing circumstances. It celebrates the goodness that can be found in all nations.
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  1. Reading age
    12 - 18 years
  2. Print length
    293 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    November 26, 2014
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
    Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00Q9AK9VA
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ PebbleStone
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 26, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.1 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 293 pages
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 - 18 years
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 110 ratings

About the author

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B. E. Andre

B. E. Andre

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B. E. Andre was born in Manchester, England, the child of Polish post-war refugee parents. She was educated at Stretford Grammar and Loreto College, read French, German and Swedish at U. C. W. Aberystwyth, and then completed further post-graduate studies in Manchester. This was eventually followed by an M. A. in Critical and Creative Writing at the University of Winchester, United Kingdom. She worked for Reuters News Agency in London where she specialized in the oil market.

She is the proud mother of three grown-up sons who left home when they were supposed to. She lives in Northwich, Cheshire. Among her many interests is the study of wood cabins and garden sheds, and she is on permanent look-out for the ideal writer's retreat in the Mazury region of Poland.

With Blood and Scars is her debut novel.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
110 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book a truly riveting read with great writing, and one customer particularly appreciates the then/now points of view. The storytelling receives positive feedback, with one customer noting how stories between father and daughter keep readers mesmerized, while another describes it as a wonderful coming-of-age story for all ages.

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7 customers mention "Readability"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as a truly riveting read that sucks you in, with one customer particularly appreciating the then/now points of view.

"...I'll have to buy the book. The story sucks you in! Bought the book and finished it! Great story! Great writing!..." Read more

"I enjoyed this novel tremendously...." Read more

"An absolutely riveting page-turner. At turns dramatic, informative, and touching, you won't want to put this down until you see where the entirely..." Read more

"...I loved everything about this book! I loved the then/now points of view." Read more

6 customers mention "Writing quality"6 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book.

"...Bought the book and finished it! Great story! Great writing! Andre is able to weave the various story lines so seamlessly...." Read more

"...I loved this book from beginning to end. The writing simply blew me away, and there isn’t a single thing I would change about this book...." Read more

"...however, was the portrait of the Anglo-Polish community, which is very well drawn...." Read more

"...Well done!" Read more

4 customers mention "Storytelling"4 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the storytelling in the book, with one mentioning the engaging tales about childhood, while another notes how the stories between father and daughter keep readers mesmerized.

"...Ania’s character is awesome! I especially loved the tales about her childhood—her irritation with the adult’s preaching, her selfishness so typical..." Read more

"A wonderful coming of age story for all ages!..." Read more

"...It will stir memories of your childhood." Read more

"Outstanding book. Stories between father and daughter keep you mesmerized. Loved the book." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • KHF
    5.0 out of 5 stars Once you pick it up you will want to finish it right away!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I've read the first two chapters in the "look inside" feature and I'm hooked. What adventure is to come in Old Spooky? I want to know more about the narrator's relationship with her father. Andre has set up two separate story lines so quickly, and they both demand to be finished. I'll have to buy the book. The story sucks you in!

    Bought the book and finished it! Great story! Great writing! Andre is able to weave the various story lines so seamlessly. Ania's childhood in 1960's Manchester is all about her gang of friends - all from different backgrounds - and trying to figure out what it means to be Polish or English or Greek or one of the other ethnicities her friends bring to the gang. Adult Ania is trying to deal with her father's imminent passing and needs to find out what he did during WWII. She has so many questions that went unasked and unanswered during her childhood and she fears the worst. It is a reminder that all too often parents try to shield their children from the horrors of life's reality only to leave their children with the pain of the unknown.

    I had to put the book down at times because the pain was too real. My father is also old and ill (although not as bad off as Ania's father) and I had visions of what our future might hold in his final weeks. Andre wrote about his illness and approaching death with a tenderness that brought tears.

    I highly recommend the book and look forward to Andre's next!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Jackie
    5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
    Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    With Blood and Scars is B.E Andre’s debut Novel. I truly hope it will not be her last. The story of Ania, Ossie, Gianni, Manuela and Stevo sucked me in, and I was unable and unwilling to get out. It was beautiful and wonderfully funny yet so sad it ripped my heart from my chest and squeezed it until I couldn’t breathe.
    What I liked about the book
    Oh my goodness where to begin. I loved this book from beginning to end. The writing simply blew me away, and there isn’t a single thing I would change about this book. Even though the book has an aura of sadness and pain, it is also brilliantly funny. The characters were wonderfully complex.
    Ania’s character is awesome! I especially loved the tales about her childhood—her irritation with the adult’s preaching, her selfishness so typical of that age group, her lack of understanding for the pain suffered in a war she never experienced.
    I couldn’t help but feel immense sympathy for Ania’s father. A broken man struggling with the harsh realities of Nazi invasion and the horrors that came with it. His guilt over things long past and his experiences stained his life, making him cruel and rigid, yet he clearly loved his family and could be so tender and kind.
    I so so so wished things could’ve been different for Stevo. My heart just aches for him.
    What I didn’t enjoy that much
    For me there wasn’t a word out of place in this book. Nothing that niggled me, nothing that I would change.
    Final thoughts
    This is one of those books that I hope and whish and pray will be read by every single person in the world. My second wish is that they would all love it as much as I did.

    STAR RATING: A mind blowing 5 Stars!
    Will also be posted to my blog:
    http://jackiegmills.wordpress.com/
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting read
    Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    I enjoyed this novel tremendously. It's more of a coming-of-age story than a mystery but the main character, a young girl growing up in the Polish immigrant community of Manchester in the UK, does "solve" a mystery of sorts. What I most enjoyed, however, was the portrait of the Anglo-Polish community, which is very well drawn. It is especially interesting to read about how the Poles who found themselves in Britain after World War II were still haunted by it.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Enchanted England - sarahNet
    4.0 out of 5 stars An Interview At The Foot Of The Grave.
    Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2015
    The dying and the dead are so problematic aren't they? They threaten to take their secrets to their graves and then will not rest until their story is uncovered. B.E. Andre's thoughtful and intriguing history takes the reader through a careful and rare account of Manchester's Polish population in the 1960s. Through a tightly woven plot Ania explores the tension that lies behind the 60s barbed statement 'never shake a hand of a person over 30'. Ania is forced to dissect what it means to live with a father who has a terrifying past. What is memory, how reliable are the family accounts? The ghosts from WW2 are regular visitors in this Polish household. Meanwhile the reader is also faced with a tantalizing question: what secret is Ania herself keeping and what is her connection with the recent discovery of a child's body on a derelict building site?
    This is a compelling and meticulously researched first novel. The only reason I am not giving this five stars is that B.E. Andre novels will only get better and I won't be able to give her next story the six stars I am certain it will deserve.
    S.H.Keen
    www.sarahnet.co.uk
    One person found this helpful
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  • Jasonmzk
    5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, educational, and gripping.
    Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    An absolutely riveting page-turner. At turns dramatic, informative, and touching, you won't want to put this down until you see where the entirely real-seeming and fleshed-out characters end up. I learned almost as much as I felt, and this book left me feeling deeply. Anyone who grew up with a foreign-sounding name, or had a "crew" of best friends, or had parents (you see where I'm going here) will find something personal and enjoyable in this book. Definitely worth my time, and I'm certain it's worth your own.
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  • RLP
    5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Coming of Age novel!
    Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    A wonderful coming of age story for all ages! Andre hits all her marks in exploring issues we all deal with at some point - from the pangs of first love to saying goodbye for the last time. I loved everything about this book! I loved the then/now points of view.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Ula
    5.0 out of 5 stars Long overdue novel about the lives of 2nd generation Polish immigrants to the UK
    Reviewed in France on February 21, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Amazing story of the children of post WWII Polish immigrants to Manchester. The ups and downs of being a child of two cultures and two languages. A rare insight into multiculturalism in the times before it it had been recognised as such.
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  • Barb Gillett
    5.0 out of 5 stars Life in 1960s Polska Land - a vivid portrayal
    Reviewed in Australia on November 25, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    In her beautifully written novel, With Blood and Scars, B.E. Andre is able to bring Ania, her family and friends to life through her own experience of growing up in a Polish family in post war England.
    The picture she paints of Polska Land in 1960s Manchester is so vivid that I felt that I was right there (quite an achievement for the author considering I was travelling through the drought stricken Australian landscape of North Western Queensland at the time!).
    I would recommend this book to anyone, but it would particularly resonate with those, like me, who grew up in Polish families in the postwar years in many parts of the world. My own memories of Polish School on Saturdays, very long Polish Masses, Polish camps (kolonie) and special celebrations became intertwined with Ania’s story.
    Ania narrates the story as an adult in a stage of life with which many of us can identify. Her father is dying, and they grow closer as he helps her to understand his wartime experiences, and how they affected his life, and the lives of his family. There is a growing body of work relevant to this theme: two examples being Sophia Turkiewicz’s excellent documentary, Once My Mother, and Magda Szubanski’s recent book, Reckoning.
    B.E. Andre’s With Blood and Scars is also a great read – it made me laugh, and brought me to tears. I hope that you enjoy it too!
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  • James Booth
    5.0 out of 5 stars A very important read that will stay with you
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This is both a historical coming-of-age tale, about a child of Polish immigrants in 1960s England coping with the spectre of war that hangs over her family, and the story of the same child as an adult coming to terms with her father's illness and death. Whilst it's a tale of two very distinct halves (and two very different worlds) these two strands separated by the decades are woven very skilfully and sensitively together so that, especially by the end of the book, it's very easy to see the girl that was in the grown woman of later events.
    It's a work not only rich with historical event and detail, but also full of beautifully realised and utterly believable characters - one of those novels you have to give yourself a little shake whenever you put it down, as you become so immersed in Ania's world that you forget your own for a moment. This isn't always a comfortable experience - whilst this is a novel full of love, it's also tragic and in places traumatic. Andre is never heavy-handed with this, which I think makes the hard-hitting horror of life during wartime even more affecting, when delivered by a child who is not always fully aware of what the grown-ups are talking about.
    I loved young Ania. The parts of the book that gripped me personally the most were the vivid descriptions of friendship, adventure and first love, told from the point of view of a young outsider trying to fit in to a community she desperately wants to belong to. This novel is, in places, hilarious. Even the tragedy is told with such heart that it's almost comical in places. I felt for every injustice she had to go through!
    It isn't always an easy read (subject-wise at least; style-wise it's very easy to read, deceptively simple yet still vivid and beautifully crafted) and as such I had to read it in bursts - it's so moving I actually cried on public transport reading it. Certain parts really got to me - Ania finding Mrs Jelenska at the bus stop, Ania's response to receiving the Bugs Bunny doll - and moved me so much that this book will remain with me for a very long time indeed.
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  • M & A
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brought back many memories!
    Reviewed in Canada on August 21, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I really liked this book!
    Firstly, because I used to live a scant few hundred yards away from where the action took place, it was so cool to read about the streets along which I rode my bike many decades ago, the 81 bus I took to get to school then university, etc.
    Secondly, I really liked the style of this authors writing, which is a very personal observation. It is witty and a little self deprecating. Many of her memories mirrored my own, such as decrying why I had to attend Polish Saturday school when my English friends could play.
    Part of the plot, however, I found a little too far fetched, but that is a minor issue and did not detract from my enjoying reading this book.
    Lastly, one of the people the author credits with help is my cousin, who's sister married a Greek man called Karageorgis... which name belongs also to one of the main characters in this book. A very small world indeed!
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  • David Beckler
    5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and enjoyable novel that explores themes of integration and belonging.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Ania is returning to Manchester to nurse her terminally ill father, Witek, when she sees a news report that propels her nearly fifty years back, to events that had a profound impact on the ten year old Ania and have coloured her life. This might sound depressing but there's a surprising leavening of humour and although I wouldn't describe it as a comic novel, many scenes had me laughing.
    The story alternates between her life now and the events of 1966.
    Ania's complicated relationship with Witek, once an all-powerful tyrant who dominated his family but is now a frail old man near the end of his life, is well drawn. Despite the subject matter, this section never felt mawkish or maudlin. In addition to nursing her father through his last days, Ania has a mystery to solve before Witek dies.
    It is the story of the ten year old Ania and her friends that I really enjoyed. Events that shaped Ania's life and still haunt her are told through her eyes. Andre has done a great job of bringing 1960s life in south Manchester to life. Ania's relationship with her friends and family are beautifully drawn. She is a child with feet in two camps and the thriving Polish community, of which Witek is a prominent part, is wonderfully evoked. The complicated emotions of growing up in one society whilst also belonging to another are fully depicted.
    The seeds of the mystery that still troubles Ania are sewn in the mind of the girl when she begins to consider the question, "what did you do in the war daddy?" We also see the painful awakening of the realisation that your parents might not be the all-powerful paragons you believed them to be.
    Outside her family, Ania and her gang of friends befriend neglected child Stevo, who awakes in her emotions she doesn't understand as well as a wish to rebel against her Polishness. Stevo has a powerful impact on the gang which still affect their lives, especially Ania's.
    Overall, an enjoyable and well written novel that introduces you to characters that live on in the memory, long after you close the last page. I have no hesitation in recommending this novel.
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