What do readers think of Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson? Write your own review.

I found this book a very easy read. I enjoyed the characters, the story line and the ending very much. The only reason that I gave this book a 4 rather than a 5 was because some of the escapes from the Nazis were unbelievable. I obviously did not live during that time period of WWII Poland so I don't know exactly how easy or hard some of these situations were, but I just felt that the author simplified in this area. I still would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good historical novel and especially to book clubs.

Interesting conversation is not always right at hand, but the conversational style of this book hooked me.
If you are interested in the Holocaust, and you are not a purist and do not mind a good story, along with the facts, then historical fiction is a good bet for you.. Angst, rage, honesty, empathy, loyalty and persistence are ever present in the pages.
I would recommend this book for a thoughtful read and I am quite sure book clubs would find plenty to digest and discuss.

This is an provocative story of two boys who grew up together in Poland prior to World War II. Ben Solomon is Jewish and ends up in a Nazi concentration camp during the war. Otto Piatek lived with Ben's family until his parents felt it was politically dangerous for him to be living with Jews and he chooses a different path as a Nazi. Fast forward 60 years and Ben seeks to prove that a wealthy and revered Jewish benefactor living under an alias is indeed Otto and that he not only destroyed Ben's family but committed many other war crimes. I couldn't put this book down and finished it during the middle of the night.

This was a good story of one family's journey through the Holocaust. Story had a good pace and kept me captivated enough to keep reading even though I suspected how it would probably end. Ben Solomon was the type of character you couldn't help but feel his pain and want to see the person who betrayed his family exposed and brought to justice.

I very much wanted to like this book. The premise was good, and the author clearly knew a lot about his topic - both the holocaust and the law. However, the writing style was amateurish and I often felt that I was getting a lesson in either history or the practice of law. I didn't find the characters either real or appealing and although the ending of the story was engrossing, I think many other books have covered this topic far more compellingly.

Maybe it's because I just recently finished A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True (which is also about Poland during WWII and one of the best books I have ever read),but I was somewhat disappointed in Once We Were Brothers. I had high expectations for the book of which it fell short especially in the beginning. About three quarters of the way through it did pick up; however, I still felt at the end that I didn't know the characters as well as I had hoped I would. Additionally, I occasionally found portions of the book a little unbelievable with respect to all the escapes and rescues. Overall, I have read better books about this time period, but I have also read worse.

I had high expectations when I started this book but soon became disappointed. I found myself becoming confused and irritated when the story was becoming intense and interesting and the lawyer would interrupt and ask the narrator if he would like a cup of tea. The actions of the survivors trying to escape from the Nazi's did not seem at all believable nor was someone in 1940 Nazi occupied Poland naming his horse Buttermilk after Dale Evan's horse on the Roy Rogers show.

If you haven't read many stories about the Holocaust/World War 2 and the aftermath on the survivors, this book will be enjoyable. I did enjoy the book overall, but the writing seemed disjointed, and I struggled with the female character throughout the book.