A dark, gripping historical thriller.
A Jewish family’s courageous defiance of the Nazis in German-occupied Paris sets the stage for a tale of intrigue and danger in Grubman’s debut novel.
In 1942, Mori Rothstein is a successful French art dealer whose clients include some of the wealthiest families in the City of Light. His expertise in the works of the masters has gained him a loyal following and has given him the means to provide for his family. Things change suddenly, however, when Hermann Goering—the head of the Nazi Gestapo and one of the most feared men alive—seeks out Mori’s knowledge. Adolf Hitler is eager to open a museum in Austria that will feature the most renowned works of classical art, and Goering makes it clear that Mori has no choice but to cooperate with him on the project. Mori must help to identify the most prized paintings for Hitler’s museum or be deported. This is easier said than done, however, as German soldiers have already amassed a vast quantity of stolen art, and more arrives every day. After Mori begins to recognize artworks that he sold to others long ago, he devises a daring plan with the help of his son, Émile, to smuggle the precious paintings out of the Nazis’ clutches. But after a high-ranking German officer is killed, the Rothsteins find themselves on the run. The descriptions of life in Paris under Nazi rule are evocative and frightening: “As they headed toward the Tuileries, Émile wondered why that soldier kept following the two of them.” Grubman’s portrayals of his characters are complex and realistic; Mori’s wife, Ruth, for example, ends up playing a critical and satisfying role in the family’s fate. The dialogue feels intimate and conversational, as if one is privy to secret conversations. In one particularly suspenseful scene, Mori attempts to fool Goering with a forgery of a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. As the Nazi takes his time inspecting the sketch, readers will hold their breath: “Mori felt his throat constrict. He’s taking too long, he thought.”
A dark, gripping historical thriller.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73261-000-2
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Dupapier Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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