Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Historical Fiction!
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2021
This gem of historical fiction is based on a real incident which makes it all the more a fascinating read. I read this book in record time because I simply could not and did not want to put it down.
Issac Schuller is a watchmaker who was grabbed by the gestapo as he was leaving his shop and was loaded into a cattle car and taken to Dachau. Issac was singled out to work at Senior Officer Becher's home first fixing the grandfather clock, then repairing the watches and jewelry stolen from the prisoners. He works in an old shed used by the gardener and soon discovers a loose floor board which leads to a journal of sorts written by someone with the initials J. A. L. Another prisoner, Anna, works as a domestic in the home of Becher and his sadistic wife, Liesl. The Bechers have a son, Friedrich, who had to return from boarding school and they find him a nuisance and are often mean to him. There are multiple narrators and a nonlinear timeline in this book but everything meshes together very nicely. This was a very sad read at times but also there was a lot of human kindness and compassion shown by the prisoners to one another.
Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of this very sad but yet very compassionate book in exchange for an honest review.
