by Mitch Albom

A Historical Fiction, 2023 by Harper, 352 Pages

What I Didn’t Like:

Right away the set up is reminiscent of a lot of other works. Probably most specifically, this one reminded me of The Book Thief. I am not a reader who generally likes when things are too similar so that bothered me right away.
I’ve said before that Holocaust historical fiction is difficult to write and read. The goal of such a piece is to offer something new and unique, to make you feel or think about an aspect of the war you haven’t encountered before. I can’t say that this did that. If you read a lot of books from this time period, this will be like a lot of others.
Sebastian is not an easy character to read. He’s selfish and stubborn. While his story highlights pain, it also highlights holding onto grudges until they hold you down. That is hard to read.

Nico is a great character. Too many people dismiss lying, especially pathological lying, as something inexcusable. While I don’t think the book would disagree, it explores that in an interesting way through Nico.
Grief in many forms. This book does continue to follow the victims of the tales after the war has ended. Through them we get examples of all the ways people handle grief and pain.
Greece. As mentioned in the story, much of WWII fiction focuses (rightfully) on Poland or Germany. Setting this one in Greece brought a slightly different angle.

Historical fiction set during the Holocaust takes a specific kind of reader, one who is ready and able to process grief, torture, and pain. This story requires those readers.