The Thief of Auschwitz
“The camp at Auschwitz took one year of my life, and of my own free will I gave it another four.” So begins the much-anticipated new novel from Jon Clinch, award-winning author of Finn and Kings of the Earth. In The Thief of Auschwitz, Clinch steps for the first time beyond the deeply American...
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“The camp at Auschwitz took one year of my life, and of my own free will I gave it another four.” So begins the much-anticipated new novel from Jon Clinch, award-winning author of Finn and Kings of the Earth. In The Thief of Auschwitz, Clinch steps for the first time beyond the deeply American roots of his earlier books to explore one of the darkest moments in mankind’s history—and to do so with the sympathy, vision, and heart that are the hallmarks of his work. Told in two intertwining narratives, The Thief of Auschwitz takes readers on a dual journey: one into the death camp at Auschwitz with Jacob, Eidel, Max, and Lydia Rosen; the other into the heart of Max himself, now an aged but extremely vital—and outspoken—survivor. Old Max has become a world-reknowned painter, and he’s about to be honored with a retrospective at the National Gallery in Washington. Yet the truth is that he’s been keeping a crucial secret from the art world—indeed from the world at large, and perhaps even from himself—all his life long. The Thief of Auschwitz reveals that secret, along with others that lie in the heart of a family that’s called upon to endure—together and separately—the unendurable.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9781479236664 (1479236667)
Publish date: January 15th 2013
Publisher: unmediated ink
Pages no: 274
Edition language: English
Extremely well-written, a joy to read despite the bleak subject. I really cared about Max and his parents. Even the Nazis were portrayed sympathetically, or at least they were not just evil cardboard cutouts. The only question I have unanswered is: the first line states that Auschwitz took one year ...
I finished this book this morning and immediately marked it as finished on Goodreads and gave it a four-star rating. After lunch, when I was more lucid, I couldn't really think of why I would give it a four. Yes, it was good. It was intriguing. There was nothing outstandingly terrible about it.....
This was a really great read, except for two issues:1) Most of the book takes place in Auschwitz, but there are small chapters that take place in present day New York City. The present day scenes are very out of place and confusing. I think they would have been better placed at the end.2) The parent...