The memoir/biography of Kati Preston, Hidden: A True Story of the Holocaust, is one of the most beautiful, and ugliest, pieces of literature I have read this year. The story, through the child eyes of Preston, is pure and honest, yet because it is adult Preston writing the actual story, there is some of that maturity included. The ugly of the war and things done is told in the words a child understands, slightly “sugar coating” it (they say the Russian soldiers are “hurting the women” and they had been cheering for their arrival earlier), but the images surrounding it show the real story. Not for the sensitive reader. There are images of violence, death and more.
Preston’s graphic novel is a love letter to hope which is illustrated in slightly “dreamy” looking illustrations that are dark in colors and subject. Dilleen Marsh’s images are the guiding force, allowing Preston’s words to have more than the meaning she gives them. The most horrific, yet telling and in that way, becomes an ugly-beautuilf representation, is the image of the hand flopped out of a stove’s door. This allows the horrors to come to life, but only as a “side note” as almost five year old Kari is not really aware of these things, though little pitchers have big ears and she hears about them, but really only knows and understands what is in front of her. Which is, her mother is sad, a man spits on her for wearing a lovely golden star on her jacket, and her father is not there.
We are given a look at one family and what they did to try and survive. And honestly, some of those things we as 21st century people might question, and others we would applaud. We see the prejudices of the day with Kari’s maternal family being Catholic and therefore, not a fan of her Jewish father, who isn’t really “that Jewish” as they have a Christmas tree (which due to the real candles would catch fire, so they had a bucket of water next to it). And the hope with a basic stranger returning a favor to Kari’s mother by hiding Kari, at the risk of her own life. 
I would say there is an afterwards to the story, but it is one continuous story, even though it goes into decades of Preston’s life. We get a bit of Preston after she grew up and left home, and how she would come to terms with the hate she had. The ending has one of my other favorite parts and a truly beautiful image. As a grandmother, Preston is able to start to heal and lose her hate when one of her sons marries the daughter of a German soldier and brings into the world a child who will hopefully be a bridge to the hope of the future. And there is a richly, colorful and lovely image of Preston holding that baby. If nothing else, that image really is Preston’s motto of benign the voice, giving a voice, to those who do not or no longer have one.
The book is emotional, not for the sensitive reader. Read via an online reader copy, though currently it is available. 
