Patient readers will be rewarded with a contemplative story that will likely inspire further discourse.
A novel of love, betrayal and ideology during the horrors of World War II.
In this dense saga, Marsh (Rebekka’s Children, 2009) weaves the love story of two college students in Prague whose union is as unlikely as it is unwelcome. In 1938, Julia Kaufmann, a Jew from Prague, and Erich Schmidt, a German, nevertheless pursue their affair even after being warned away from each other in the turbulent times before the second world war. Julia’s family, who initially disapproves of her choice, soon comes to love and respect Erich. But the war intrudes on the budding romance, and Julia and her brother escape to England while Erich returns to Germany. His father, a prominent medical doctor with considerable influence in the Nazi regime, arranges for his son to work at a hospital, shielding him from the obligation to become a soldier. As the war progresses, their paths continue to diverge. Julia becomes an agent in the resistance movement, and Erich’s hospital responsibilities intertwine with medical eugenics and euthanasia, progressing slowly from incurably disfigured children to the mentally unfit to a horrible culmination. Throughout their wartime experiences, both Julia and Erich cling to the idea that they will reunite and continue their lives together. Marsh thoroughly explores the shades of gray that can exist in wartime. Erich is a sympathetic character, yet his role in the war seems largely the result of his innate passivity—“stay silent to survive”—which is in stark contrast to Julia’s developing courage. Despite the horrors surrounding them, many of the characters observe the beauty of the natural world, and Marsh’s sensory descriptions, especially of sights and smells, enrich the story. The writing is eloquent, but not always economical—tangential, philosophical and at times dreamlike elements slow the pace. Perhaps that is Marsh’s intention. Although the conclusion is not a surprise, it shouldn’t diminish the story’s lingering impression.
Patient readers will be rewarded with a contemplative story that will likely inspire further discourse.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0983826439
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Brandylane Publishers, Inc.
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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