I really liked this book. I nearly quit reading after 50 pages due the run on sentences and excessive use of punctuation. Some sentences are more than half a page in length and I found them difficult to read. Commas, dashes and parentheses are liberally used. I kept reading though because the premise had caught my interest.
Mendolsohn wrote the book after searching for his relatives killed during the holocaust. Because all of his family that stayed in Poland during WW2 were killed, he interviews other survivors from the same town, Bolechow. His search is to learn how and when they were killed and to learn something about their lives. All of the survivors he meets have their own memories and story to tell. You can tell how emotionally involved the author became during the search for his relatives. I would have preferred some editing :-)
Mendolsohn wrote the book after searching for his relatives killed during the holocaust. Because all of his family that stayed in Poland during WW2 were killed, he interviews other survivors from the same town, Bolechow. His search is to learn how and when they were killed and to learn something about their lives. All of the survivors he meets have their own memories and story to tell. You can tell how emotionally involved the author became during the search for his relatives. I would have preferred some editing :-)
Helpful Score: 1
This is an incredible book. It is a memoir of the author's search to find out what happened to his great-uncle's family during the Holocaust - all the family knew was that they had been 'killed by the Nazis'. At the start of the book you are skeptical, frankly, that anything can be found out about just six of six million. And then little discovery by little discovery, the author draws you in until you almost feel like you are on the search with him. This book is a master class in how to do your family history research properly! That aside, it is also a beautifully written and incredibly moving story of a family and how family ties and tensions affect us all.
Helpful Score: 1
A truly brilliant and remarkable book. I read most books in 2-4 days, tops. But this book took me more than a week to finish, because I kept having to take breaks - literally. The writing is vivid, descriptive and engrossing; parts of the tale will bring you to tears; the story is vast and epic in nature. Mendelsohn embarks on a years-long search for his Great Uncle's family, which disappeared from their tiny Ukraine village during World War II and were killed (although no one knew exactly how, or when) during the Holocaust. Mendelsohn's journey takes him across the Atlantic and through most of northern and eastern Europe, Australia and Israel. He recounts the memories of many Jewish families who were trapped in Ukraine and Poland during the Holocaust, and some who managed to flee with their lives. The story of what actually happened to these six individuals - Mendelsohn's great-uncle, great-aunt, and their four daughters, will stay with you for a long time after you finally reach the end of the book. Six of six million... but a story richly, and heartbreakingly, told so that the rest of us will never forget.
I really can't say enough about this book. Mr. Mendelsohn takes us on a very intricate and difficult journey, both physically and emotionally, into the past of his family's holocaust experience. Far from tedious, even the smallest detail becomes as important to the reader as it did to the Mendelsohn family. This is a book everyone should read.
