This story is told by Adelheid Brunner from her posthumous life. She looks back into her life in Vienna of the 1930s and 40s with a particular focus on the famous Children’s Hospital that was headed by Dr Asperger. In her unique position as a dead person, she is also free to make links with other people and events in far-away places and times: she introduces her readers to a well-known researcher into Autism living in London in the 1980s and also takes you to an event in 2012 in Vienna that sets out to celebrate the life and work of Asperger, the great pioneer of Autism research and father of neurodiversity.

Asperger saw every person as unique and different; he perceived difference as an opportunity at a time when under Nazi rule difference was seen as weakness that needed to be eradicated. Adelheid’s story affords the reader a glimpse into the brutal contradictions of that time and investigates the compromises that were made to survive and to be able to continue with important. The moral dilemmas raise ethical questions that cut deep and throw a dark shadow over the advances in autism research that were made during this time.

Whilst many of the protagonists are meticulously researched historical figures, Adelheid is an invented narrator, who in her somewhat naïve manner is utterly believable. Nothing escapes her, she is a great recorder of details and totally reliable because due to her own neurodiversity, she can only speak the truth – there is no filter or censor, no manipulation of it. This is exactly what makes her story so raw and unjudgmental.
The historical context and the way it is presented really drew me in. I found myself reading up about so many aspects of the book, people mentioned and events occurring – this to me is historical fiction at its best.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Alice Jolly and Netgalley for this advanced copy.

I picked up The Matchbox Girl expecting something straightforward, but it turned out to be a quietly compelling read. Adelheid’s world is strange and captivating, and the way her silence shapes her view of Vienna in 1938 really stuck with me. The book hops around a bit, which took a while to get used to, but it made the story feel more alive and unpredictable. There’s a mix of charm, tension, and melancholy that lingers long after you’ve put it down. Not an easy read, but well worth the effort.

What Is Going On With The Capitals? I can't Read something Like This. I was Looking Forward to This One but I can't get on board With The Style.

I'm afraid I found this very difficult to engage with - it was intriguing to start with and I admire what the author is trying to do, but I'm sorry it didn't work for me. I'm giving it three stars because I appreciate that it's well written, and I'm sure many will appreciate it.

The blurb for this bo9k waa intriguing but it felt a bit disjointed in places which had nothing to do with the jumps in the timeline which all came together in the end,, it kept referring to the main character's death which unless I missed something, never materialised . It wasn't the book for me but it was well written and researched.

This wasn’t quite what I expected from the blurb, it was much colder emotionally than I expected (which I liked) but also denser and less plot focused (which didn’t work as well for me).

Adelheid doesn’t speak, which makes for a different kind of narrator and extra weight is added by being set in close proximity to doctor Asperger and being set mostly in nazi occupied Austria. The difference between what she thinks and experiences and what those around her think she does was well done.

There are also short sections between her main story which are often from later and about different people who are important to the context of the overall narrative, and these sections were my favourite of the novel.

This treads the fine line between fiction and meta fiction, and as I was familiar with a lot of the history that undercut the impact I felt, not that that is the books fault!

The Matchbox Girl follows Adelheid Brunner who does not speak and wants to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother doesn’t understand Adelheid’s ambition and Adelheid hides in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph and listens in on conversations. Adelheid meets Dr Asperger who invites her to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic where she will be under observation with other children. But this takes place in 1938 with Vienna a place of political instability and Nazis march into the city crating a new world and more danger.

This was very well written as the narrative jumped around and it really felt like Adelheid was a real person and as if I was experiencing her thoughts. This has some good observations on Vienna and the Nazi threat and generally I can see people enjoying this.