A little-known story enjoyably told.
A fact-inspired novel about a German Jewish soldier fighting for the British as a member of two secret, all-Jewish commando units disguised as Nazis.
The book begins in the North African desert in the spring of 1943. Having miraculously made it across an endless stretch of sand in the blistering heat on a shattered leg, Bernard Froelich convinces his British captors that despite his Nazi uniform, he is one of them. He is the last surviving member of an infiltration squad comprised of escaped German and Austrian Jews who, having lost their families in the Holocaust, are out for revenge. Boasting a gangrenous wound, Froelich is told his leg will be amputated before the charismatic, cigar-chomping American commander of an understaffed field hospital in an Italian monastery overrules the order and devises a makeshift way to set and heal the leg. Soon enough, Froelich is recovered enough to take charge of another all-Jewish team of fake Nazis whose mission is to parachute into a German village on the isle of Usedom to disrupt an advanced Nazi missile project. A one-time merchant mariner and member of a Special Operations branch of Israeli Military Intelligence, Hartov is at his best capturing the torturous physical tests his protagonist is put to. The desert scenes scorch the imagination; the bombing of a transport ship is horrific. While never less than entertaining, the rest of the novel doesn’t rise to that level of intensity, comfortably plugged into the Dirty Dozen formula (Froelich and his fellow commandos are called FJDs, as in “filthy Jewish dozen”). There are extended training sequences, plenty of gallows humor to go around, Rommel makes a low-key appearance, and Froelich falls in love.
A little-known story enjoyably told.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-335-05010-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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