A lively work that explores a transformative time in a tumultuous place.
Robbins presents a historical novel about the formation of Israel.
During World War II, Vincenz “Vince” Haas is a reporter from Brooklyn embedded with the U.S. 3rd Army in Europe in 1945. As American forces liberate Germany’s Buchenwald concentration camp, Vince meets prisoner Hugo Ungar, who once worked as a plumber in Leipzig. As Hugo regains his strength and comes to terms with his situation, he decides to head to Palestine and encourages Vince to go with him. The decision is easy for Vince, as there will be plenty to report on in the Middle East, but the journey is anything but simple. Robbins also relates the story of a young woman named Éva,who will later take the name Rivkah Gellerman, who made the trip to Palestine from Vienna in 1940. As her boat, which had been stopped by the British, waited in Haifa’s harbor, a ship called the Patria exploded nearby—the first of many explosions to come. Paramilitary groups, such as the Irgun, will stop at nothing to create a Jewish state; Arab fighters in the region will do anything to stop them; and many rank-and-file British soldiers just want to return to their own homes. The British eventually give up control of Palestine, but it’s only the beginning of the region’s story. Robbins’ telling makes effective use of real events, such as the bombing of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel in 1946 and the execution of Zionist activist Dov Gruner by the British in 1947. The narrative not only incorporates detailed accounts of these happenings, but also deeply explores the motivations of the many people involved in them. Indeed, the book manages to fit in a great deal of history in fewer than 600 pages, although some repetition could have been excised. For instance, Hugo explains to multiple people, multiple times, that he was once a plumber—a detail that has little relevance to the plot. Still, as the main players fight, bleed, and try to make sense of the world, the narrative successfully carries readers right along with them.
A lively work that explores a transformative time in a tumultuous place.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64293-829-6
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Wicked Son
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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