What a Life! An Autobiography

by Tanya Robinson (Goodreads Author)

2.67 of 5 stars 2.67 · rating details · 3 ratings · 2 reviews

What a Life! is in part a family saga depicting how a loving, caring and generous people are subjected to cruel treatment and calamities; murder, pestilence and abuse included. However, the work is primarily concerned with the life of one of the granddaughters whose innocence, loving nature, incredible naivety and natural beauty are taken advantage of. After escaping from ...more

Kindle Edition , 415 pages

Published November 27th 2012 by Amazon Digital Services

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

Or buy for

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about What a Life! An Autobiography , please sign up .

Be the first to ask a question about What a Life! An Autobiography

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-4 of 4)

filter | sort : default (?) | rating details

Jul 19, 2013 Philip rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found it amazing that everything included in this book is actually true and could happen to one family let alone one person.

The first three chapters are dedicated to describing how the author’s grandparent’s idyllic life was destroyed by murder and pestilence. However, it is also a tale of survival. The fourth chapter gives a very brief account of her parents, although to be honest it would have been nice to have more detail.

From the fifth chapter onwards the book concentrates upon the author’ I found it amazing that everything included in this book is actually true and could happen to one family let alone one person.

The first three chapters are dedicated to describing how the author’s grandparent’s idyllic life was destroyed by murder and pestilence. However, it is also a tale of survival. The fourth chapter gives a very brief account of her parents, although to be honest it would have been nice to have more detail.

From the fifth chapter onwards the book concentrates upon the author’s own life. We read of her idyllic, loving childhood days which are left behind for ever with her mother’s early death. How she nearly looses her sanity and is consequently removed from the family home only to face attempted abuse by relatives who were supposed to be caring for her.

Her homeland is invaded and occupied during World War II and we are told how, after having run away to avoid her potential abusers, she falls into the hands of the Gestapo. We are then given an account of how these inhuman men torture this young child. It is hard to believe grown men can do such things. After being left for dead, under a pile of bodies, someone discovers her and slowly restores her to health.

Eventually she is restored to her family and ultimately marries a foreign national. Regrettably her husband, whom she loves, turns out to be a very jealous and violent person and continually beats her. Despite all this she does fall pregnant and has a son who is the joy of her life. However, her husband is so jealous that he daily tries to kill him. Tanya is reduced to almost murdering her husband and realising, despite his prostrations, his violence will never cease, secretly leaves.

Thereafter we read about the difficulties of bringing up a child in a society which did not really accept loan mothers; people at the time always assumed immoral reasons. We are treated to some of the amusing incidents she experiences as well as the more unpleasant ones including an attempted kidnapping. She explains how people continue to try and take advantage of her naivety and innocence. Nevertheless, she survives it all. There are also accounts of some of the very interesting as well as wealthy people she meets during her working life.

The above is a very quick and shortened résumé of the book and misses out much. It is incredible what this woman experiences in her one life; there is enough here for several lives! You really will need to read this for yourself to gain a full appreciation of this heartrending and life changing tale. It is not all doom and gloom also the author has done her best to avoid unnecessary details of mundane daily life and has treated the more horrific aspects with sensitivity.

The read is slightly spoilt by some errors, textual, grammatical and punctuation. Also in a few places I personally reckon some rephrasing/rewording would be useful. I have been informed that a revised, updated version is being considered but will take time to be published due to heavy demands upon the author’s time. However, these minor hiccups do not detract from the tale and I heartily recommend it. In view of the time delay I advise you not to wait for the new edition. Besides, a re-write may end up eliminating some of the very interesting background information and descriptions.

This is an incredible life story and I unreservedly give it four stars, which allows for and takes into account the points I mention in the preceding paragraph. I suspect the revised edition will deserve a five star rating.

There is more information on Tanya's blog at: http://www.tanyarobinson100.blogspot.com ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 23, 2013 Jill Dobbe rated it 3 of 5 stars

Somewhat difficult to read due to content and unprofessional editing.

flag Like · see review

Melissa Martin rated it 1 of 5 stars
Mar 25, 2014

A.L. Butcher marked it as to-read
Jun 18, 2013

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Memoirs and Biogr...: FREE - Last two days!	1	10	Jul 03, 2013 05:21AM
Making Connections: 1281. - WHAT A LIFE! AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Tanya Robinson	3	26	Jun 18, 2013 11:03AM
Memoirs and Biogr...: FREE Autobiography	1	11	Jun 13, 2013 04:52AM

Books by Tanya Robinson

Kin's Day at the Ranch (The Mannge' Manhoben Book 2)

More…

Share This Book

Share on your website

title link	preview: What a Life! An Autobiography
avg rating	preview: What a Life! An Autobiography Goodreads rating: 2.67 (3 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17860815-what-a-life-an-autobiography?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367393240l/17860815.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17860815-what-a-life-an-autobiography?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]What a Life! An Autobiography by Tanya Robinson[/url]