The time is WWII Prague. Emma is a shy, poor Jewish girl who meets an amazing and passionate young man, Jacob. Jacob sees her hidden away in the books of the library and they fall passionately in love. Then the war interfers with their new life.
Jacob joins the resistance and sends Emma to his Catholic aunt on the edges of Prague. Emma changes her name to Anna and begins working in Nazi headquarters for the Kommandant. So begins the next phase of Emma/Anna’s life. She is scared beyond all she knows that she will be discovered and killed. Here is a Jewish girl in the heart of Prague’s Nazi center.
But, Emma finds strength in a way she did not expect. She finds love in the Krysia’s house (the older aunt) caring for an orphaned child. She is able to slowly do more and more for the resistance as she discovers the Kommandan’ts secrets. But Anna has her secrets as well. As the Kommandant notices her again and again she must make very difficult choices that affect her life and the life of Jacob. Her choices will come to change her and the lives of many around her.
This is a great read - not easy, but thought provoking. It makes you wonder what choices you would make for the greater good...Sitting in the middle of Iowa the path looks clear - would it if the war swirled through our own world???
Excellent!!
05/07
1 comment:
me again...aren't you sorry you told me to post comments!
This is another one i read from a different perspective than everyone else. As i read it, i could recall the first hand accounts i have heard about that time and what was happening in the concentration camps. i know that emma/anna was ultimately doing what she needed to do for the good of everyone, but it was the little things she had to do that i struggled with.
i will admit i was not very fond of the ending. i wanted to know more and it just seemed to end abruptly after jenoff conveniently came to conclusions...
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