My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I picked this book up at book fair a couple of years ago because I liked the cover, and I’d recently read a couple of kids books about the Holocaust. Once I got it home, I put off reading it for over a year. As I read the synopsis, it just didn’t sound like and interesting story. Was I wrong!!!
This is the story about an old man, Jacob Horowitz. And this is the story of a young boy, Jacob Horowitz. Jacob the old man is Jew, a widower living in Cleveland, dying of cancer. Jacob has two sons, one of whom he has not spoken to in close to 10 years. And Jacob has his memories from which he has been running; his memories of Jacob the young boy.
Jacob the young boy is a Belgian Jew, living with very happily with his mother, his father, and his sister, Sarah. The father has a good business and the family is normal and happy, until one day, when Jacob is 11, the Nazis come. He then spends the war years running and hiding out from the Nazis. And even after the war, Jacob suffers tragedy.
The book is a story of forgiveness; a story of Jacob reconciling himself with his son and with his memories. As I read Jacob’s story, I learned about the Belgian Underground, and the people who willingly risked their lives to stand up to evil. The story is suspenseful and well told. Once I picked up the book, it was hard to set it aside. This doesn’t seem to be a very well known book on Goodreads and that is too bad. It deserves a wide readership. I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in World War II fiction, and anyone just looking for a good read!
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