Blog Tour: The Other Me by Saskia Sarginson

Title: The Other Me
Author: Saskia Sarginson
Published: August 13th 2015 by Piatkus
Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: Eliza Bennett has the life she's always dreamed of.She's who she wants to be, and she's with the man she loves.

But Eliza is living a lie. Her real name is Klaudia Meyer.
And Klaudia is on the run. She's escaping her old life, and a terrible secret buried at the heart of her family.

This is the story of Eliza and Klaudia - one girl, two lives and a lie they cannot hide from.

Psychological and suspenseful: the gripping story of one girl living a double life.

From rising star Saskia Sarginson, author of The Twins and Without You.

First of all I would like to thank the publishers for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Review: When I first picked up The Other Me, I had no idea what to the expect. The blurb doesn't give much away and only reading it I thought it would be kind of a psychological thriller. But soon, I realised that this story was so much more than I first thought and not so "thrillery". The first thing that surprised me was that Eliza is really young, still a university student when we meet her (although she has dropped her degree and is following a career in dancing, her true passion). I don't know why I expected her to be older. Anyway, I instantly felt drawn to her. I wanted to know more about her and why she had decided to leave her life as Klaudia behind.

What followed was a real beautifully written complex tale about identity, family and finding yourself in this big confusing world. Thanks to flashbacks we get to read about Klaudia/Eliza's childhood. A very difficult one, that is. She was bullied when she started high school for being the daughter of a German as everyone thought he was a Nazi. Klaudia, who had been home schooled until then, was quite naive and actually have no idea about her father's past so soon adopted some misconceptions about him and his life and started counting the days until she could leave him and her old life behind. I found this topic really interesting to read, especially through young Klaudia's eyes. Her story truly captured me and made me think a lot about identity and what defines a person, their upbringing and surroundings or the choices they make...

Also, I was positively surprised to see that the story had a third narrator (if you count Klaudia and Eliza as two different ones) in Ernst, Klaudia's uncle. I love reading historical fiction and Ernst's chapters are set in Prewar Germany and also during the war and tell the story of him and Klaudia's father. A story I found really interesting in its own but that also had clear links to the present. This search for the feeling of belonging and how we see ourselves through other's eyes. 

I can say that I thoughtfully enjoyed The Other Me from cover to cover and that it really got to me in some moments. Saskia's style was captivating and involving. While reading this story, I couldn't think of anything else. Klaudia's story (and also Ernst's) is one I won't forget in a long time. A highly recommended read for me. 


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