HOME WAS A DREAM

A Bay Area writer explores his family history and discovers that his grandfather was a Holocaust survivor in Warburg’s novel.

Tim Green has had a unique upbringing—his single father, Bernie, was a music journalist with a long, successful career behind him. Unfortunately, his father has died, and the loss has been devastating. Anxious to know more about his family history, Tim meets with his aunt Ruth to learn more about the past. Bernie, an intrepid writer for Noise magazine, was raised by Max and Eleanor Green in Vallejo. Bernie had a fraught relationship with Max, who was usually quiet but sometimes grew so angry that Bernie and Ruth called him “The Dragon.” The family is of Jewish ancestry, but Max always tried to hide it from the neighbors. In the 1940s, a young Max is sent to Terezín in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, a Jewish ghetto that was a preliminary stop before many Jews were sent to death camps. Life for Max in Terezín is difficult but survivable, a place the Nazis could show the Red Cross inspectors: “Terezín was a diversion, the magician waving with his left hand while he picks your pocket with his right.” As Tim learns more about Max and Bernie, his family’s deep connection to music becomes clearer, as do the horrifying realities of Max’s experience as a concentration camp survivor. Warburg’s third book in a series about Tim Green is well-researched; the authenticity makes the historical fiction truly engrossing. A major strength of the narrative is the account of Bernie building his career as a music writer during the rock heyday of the 1970s and ’80s. Key events in characters’ lives are identified and connected through family history and the theme of music with impressive insight into how people relate to one another. There are many Holocaust stories out there, but Warburg’s keen ear for dialogue and attention to detail make this one stand out.

An appealing, historically rich novel connecting the life of a California music writer to the Holocaust.