The living and the lost

Sometimes the difference between life and death can come down to a knee-jerk reaction. Such was the case for teens Meike (Millie) and David Mosbach, who were separated from their parents seconds before the family tried to board a train to spirit them safely out of Nazi Germany. That the siblings escaped to the U.S. and led successful lives while their parents and younger sister suffered is only one part of their emotional vulnerability. Now, with the war over, Millie and David return to Berlin in official military-adjacent capacities that provide them with the means to get answers to what happened that pivotal day, seek revenge for damage done to their family, and perhaps assuage the survivor's guilt they've carried for years. In a world that seems to be divided into clear sides of good and evil, Feldman (Paris Never Leaves You, 2020) steers her characters into the gray areas where it is important to look beneath the surface to find truth and to extend forgiveness to oneself as tenderly as it is offered to others.

In this exquisite piece of historical fiction, Feldman (Paris Never Leaves You) explores post-WWII Germany as viewed by a Jewish woman who escaped as a child. Meike "Millie" Mosbach fled Germany at 16 in 1938 with her younger brother, David. During the war, the two began new lives in the U.S. She studied at Bryn Mawr and began a career in magazine publishing, while he enlisted in the Army and underwent intelligence training. In late 1945, both return to Berlin, where Millie helps the Army root out former Nazis from the publishing industry and David helps rescue displaced persons. Meanwhile, Millie searches for their parents and younger sister, Sarah, who were unable to secure passage out of the country. Millie returned with a black-and-white view of the world--Germans bad, Americans good--and Feldman does a good job tracking her education of the gray area ("You lost family to the Nazis. I lost family to both sides," a German woman tells her). This will stay with readers long after the final page is turned. (Sept.)

After finding refuge from the Nazis in America, a young Jewish woman returns to her native Berlin in 1945, as the Allied occupation begins. As we learn from flashbacks, Millie Mosbach and her younger brother, David, fled Germany as teenagers in 1938, sponsored by a generous American couple. Now Millie, a graduate of Bryn Mawr, and David, an American military officer and combat vet, have signed up for official duties in their homeland--Millie as part of a de-Nazification program, David to help with displaced persons. Millie is in turmoil, though, holding out hope that their missing parents and younger sister may still be alive--and hiding what she sees as a shameful secret about her escape. This book feels different from other historical novels about the Holocaust, partly because of its postwar Berlin setting. Author Feldman offers nuance, even irony here. While not giving any slack to the evildoers, she reminds us that some ordinary Germans also suffered under the Third Reich--Millie meets one woman whose son was murdered by the Nazis because they thought he was "mentally infirm." The author also reminds us that antisemitism was rife in the U.S. when this story takes place. (Gentlemen's Agreement, Laura Z. Hobson's novel about discrimination against American Jews, was published in 1947.) Feldman's writing is mostly workmanlike, though her description of the shattered Berlin--a "bombed out Wild West"--is striking. The last section of the book disappoints. It turns out that Maj. Harry Sutton--Millie's boss and love interest--has been harboring a secret too much like Millie's. Millie also falls and bloodies herself--literally--once too often, with Harry always rescuing her. In general, loose ends get tied up too neatly. An often thoughtful and affecting page-turner, some clumsy plotting aside. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.