Yaniv Cahoua Cahoua itibaren 3204 Schwerbachgegend, Avusturya
This was one of my favorites in the series...
This is a novel based on real events which, to me, made it even more interesting. It tells the story of German exiles from the Nazi regime in the early 1930s and deals with the bravery of some in trying to alert the world to what was happening in their native country, and the betrayal by others in trying to stop them. It jumps back and forward in time from the historical events to an old lady at the end of her life, looking back and trying to make sense of what happened. It took me a few chapters to get the hang of the time shifts and to grow familiar with the two narrators who tell us most of the story. However after that I found it gripping and raced to the end. I felt that it dealt well with the issue of the British government trying to appease the Nazis in order to avoid a war and filled in some background on this issue which I wasn’t previously aware of. It’s fair to say that the UK government doesn’t come out of it well. Although I enjoyed the book, I found most of the characters quite remote and felt that I was observing them from a distance rather than being there with them in their stories. I didn’t feel very emotionally involved with any of them despite the sometimes shocking events that we hear about. It also felt like there was a bit of a void at the centre of the novel in that Dora remains a bit of a cipher as we never see things through her eyes. I would have loved to know more about her directly rather than reading others’ observations of her. Also, we don’t really see any of the major events for ourselves, we just hear about them later, which I think diminishes their impact. Having said all that, I did very much enjoy the novel and would recommend it to those with an interest in this period of history.