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Carolyn V. (Douglass, KS)
A different view of the Holocaust
I enjoyed this book and it's characters. I found the way Jacob dealt with his grief and desire for revenge very satisfying. The book's ending was good without being too neat and perfect.
Barbara L. (Novato, CA)
Jacob's 0ath
I loved this book although it was difficult to read about the atrocities of the war. The theme of revenge was prominent, but more so the theme of love, human resilience, and hope. When everything has been taken away from both Jacob and Sarah, their homes, their families, their loves, their dignity, they still somehow find a way to begin again and build a new life.This story of the strength of the human spirit is inspiring as well as deeply satisfying.
Gunta K. (Glens Falls, NY)
The Indistructable Spirit of the Human
The human spirit is indestructable. This has been shown in our human history over and over again. It is also so in Martin Fletcher's novel. This is a diary of various moments in the lives of Jacob and Sarah during WW II and its aftermath. Having lost everything, family, home all support systems, totally subjected to the kind of torture we humans are capable of, these two Jews try to survive in an environment that hates them. Jacob is a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, torture camp for Jews. He witnessed the killing of his little brother. Sarah had lost the love of her life, Hoppi, one night in a deserted cemetery she
…more prematurely gives birth to her baby. Baby is born dead. She is alone and terrified as the chance of her life coming to an end instantly either at the hands of the Soviets or the Nazis is a given. Sarah and Joseph meet by chance while hiding and together attempt to survive mentally and physically. Sarah has many emotional scars.The vivid descriptions of foraging for food, cigarette butts, as well as safety are very vivid. Sarah is helped by an American GI after being brutally raped. The soldier takes her to a hospital. Eventually Sarah and Jacob fall in love. They are not able to move on with their lives until Jacob is able to avenge the murder of his little brother Maxie. The psychological scars are receding somewhat for the two of them but all is definitely not well. There are many moments here in this novel where I had to put the book down and go for a little walk to air out my head. It is an amazing, yet, a very disturbing story. Surely required reading for generations who are interested in WW II and those who are interested in what exactly happened in the now distant past. There are not many left who can tell the human history of WW2 in the first person. We must read and learn about those times so as to help prevent this from ever happening again. This book is a lesson in geography, human prejudice, fear, and above all history. (less)As I was reading this book, I kept thinking of one tree standing as part of a forest. This story is one of many that make up the Holocaust. Painful at times to read because of the harshness of the details, there was a definite uplifting quality to it. It is a story about the fight between the desire for revenge and the desire for a new life filled with hope and love. It is the past waging war against the future. I found this book to be well written and thought provoking. There is much in this story that can be discussed.
Linda C. (Carlisle, MA)
Aftermath of WWII
Not often does one find a book that focuses on the plight of the refugees at the end of WW II, and almost never a very real insight into the overwhelming challenges the Holocaust survivors faced. This book quickly drew me in, and gave me a capsule view of two such survivors. Jacob and Sarah meet in a very unlikely way in Heidelberg at the end of the war. Both have survived unimaginable horror and trauma. Jacob, with a deep, revengeful anger toward his brother's SS murderer, and Sarah with unfathomable pain from the horror and loss she endured. Together they have to try and work through this past into beginning
…more to build a future and this is the focus of the story. It was informative, emotional, suspenseful, and I find myself thinking about it over and over. Great book group book! (less)Why return to a place when there is nothing left? Why not return? "When can a good person do a bad thing?" These are the primary questions dealt with in this very well-written novel about the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust. The story follows two young Jews who have had very different war experiences but are both broken in their own ways. The reader learns who they were and who they have become and watches them struggle with making a new life while still dealing with what happened to the old one. This book will make you think. It made me want to read more by this author.
Steve B. (Spring, TX)
The Holocaust and its Aftermath
This is a novel about one of the most horrific periods in our history; the holocaust and its aftermath. Author Martin Fletcher does a masterful job of capturing the essence of the heart rendering atrocities committed, and the despair created in the death camps. Jacob was interred in a concentration camp and was subjected to the cruelty and inhumane treatment of the Jews but was able to survive. His brother was less fortunate, dying in Jacob's arms.
The major portion of the novel deals with the time after the end of the war. Jacob meets Sarah, a survivor who was able to hide out and escape capture. She is also a
…more victim, but at the hands of the liberators. Jacob is obsessed with fulfilling a promise made to his brother that he would avenge his death. This obsession threatens their relationship and their future.
Author Fletcher has created a story that held my interest throughout. It is a love story that has all the suspense, anxiety and pity that ones emotions can endure. (less)Why would a refugee who is dirty, hungry, homeless, destitute, and shoeless want to return to his birthplace? After the camps, how do you rebuild toward a hopeful future without the painful and brutal memories of the assault and horror of your losses? This book is about the courageous survivors of the camps and their daily emotional roller coaster of memories that influence hope and planning for a future in Heidelberg, Germany. The conflicts escalate to a climax in a very engaging way. The characters, Sara and Jacob the villain, Hans, and others were very believable and hard to forget. The German Holocaust was
…more horrific and those who returned to Germany had both logical and emotional reasons for making the trek. This novel is about their journey during the war, their decision to return to home, and the aftereffects of the horrors. The descriptions were so vivid a reader could feel the cold, the pain of the fall, and the sickness from fever and bacteria. The bullying of Maxi, Jacob's brother and his subsequent death by "THE RAT" became reoccurring nightmares for Jacob as he dealt with his demons. The losses that this couple experienced were significant and became hard for the reader to assimilate without a great deal of empathy and sympathy. I felt I knew the moral fabric and soul of this couple. Lieutenant Isak Brodsky became a savior and the hopeful eye toward life and future happiness. His fortuitous help and empathy at critical times in the novel's plot became necessary to the reader's need to know that things would only get better for this couple that we come to know so well. This new novel is a different take on the story of the holocaust because this was about the demons that accompany the psychological state as the protagonists attempt to rebuild a future without predictability while paying homage to a past that is horribly traumatic. (less)
