My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I hope her grandmother rots in that special circle of hell reserved for bigots…

She doesn’t know if she blames him or pities him, hates him or loves him. All she knows is there is enough shame to go around.

She’s his training analyst. Makes her sound like a pair of wheels on the back of a bike, if you ask me.

“I told Mr. Rosenblum I wasn’t Jewish… I thought I ought to tell him. I mean, after the business with the menorah and everything.” “What did he say?” “That nobody’s perfect.”

My Review:

This was an intense yet gripping read with storylines steeped in angst, despair, and human and inhuman tragedy (which don’t rank among my favorite things), yet the quality of the writing was phenomenal and kept me engrossed and fully engaged. I was hooked – I was starving, I was tense, I was cold, I felt unwashed, I was THERE!

Ms. Feldman’s uniquely evocative arrangements of words were powerful, emotive, poignant, transportive, and thoughtfully plotted. This epic tale involved multiple storylines that laced together toward an entirely unexpected and somewhat indeterminate ending. Each thread as tautly written, mysteriously secretive, and anxiously risky of perilous discovery as the next. Her characters were enigmatic, deeply flawed, profoundly insightful, and entirely human. I was pulled into their edgy vortex of imminent danger and impending doom, not just from the brutal cruelty of the Nazi invaders, but more disturbingly, from the unrepentant savagery of the French citizenry as they turned on each other amidst the escalating tensions and unrelenting subjugation of their occupation as well as the aftermath.

There were several instances that required I put my Kindle down, walk away, and seek solace in a vat of wine… the most ruinous was near the end when I found myself totally devastated by a particular loss, and of the most unexpected of characters.   Ms. Feldman has strong word voodoo and a new fangirl.

ELLEN FELDMAN, a 2009 Guggenheim fellow, is the author of Terrible Virtue, The Unwitting, Next to Love, Scottsboro (shortlisted for the Orange Prize), The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank (translated into nine languages), and Lucy. Her novel Terrible Virtue was optioned by Black Bicycle for a feature film.