The Threads Remain

Shapiro presents a set of parallel stories, set in Germany in different eras.

In 1941, Josef Zohren is recruited at age 15 from his elite Gymnasium school and shipped off to training the next day to join the Einsatzgruppen, a special task force under the Schutzstaffel whose focus is on dealing with what antisemitic Germans call the “Jew problem.” He struggles to deal with the expectations of his role as a Nazi, and, and when he’s paired with Hans Bringmann, a loyalist to the cause, he begins to question where his own allegiance lies. In another storyline set in 1938, Max and Gerda Biermann, the Jewish owners of a toy store in Munich, are facing struggles of their own after the Nazi regime issues a decree that results in the loss of their business. After relying on Gerda’s incredible talent at making fine knit and crocheted animals and Max’s work as a day laborer to survive, they’re eventually forced into hiding by German soldiers, which upends their lives. Postwar Germany in 1957 finds 16-year-old Friedrich Becker grieving the recent loss of his adoptive mother, Minna. Spurred by her death to investigate the identity of his biological parents, Friedrich meets Sigrid, an orphan who works at an orphanage and joins him in his search. He remembers nothing of the time before his own adoption, but he has a crocheted bear named Bärli, which he had with him at age 4. Over the course of this layered narrative, Shapiro demonstrates an exceptional talent for storytelling as he highlights war’s capacity to separate people, but also to draw them together in common cause. Indeed, the story effectively shows how conflict can bind people together across generations and, as it happens, across time itself. As the various timelines intertwine, the author’s fine attention to detail results in a satisfying reading experience. Overall, the work ably reminds readers that although “there is no hope of creating a better past,” the future is still full of possibility.

An intricately woven story of tragedy and hope.