Wartime Lies

This incredibly well-written novel is not the typical - if you'll forgive calling a Holocaust survival story 'typical' - story of a survivor of WWII. The perspective is that of a Jewish boy in Poland who never sees a concentration camp, but lives a different kind of trauma in hiding his Jewish ident......more

There is something about Slavic natives who learned French before learning English that gives them a wonderful facility with the language. I am thinking of Kafka and Nabokov, but Louis Begley fits the pattern nicely. As a first novel, this is an admirable achievement. Its reputation is as of a thinly......more

It is essential to always remember what human beings have done and can do to each other. Cruelty and a lust for violence may or may not be innate, but in a time of fear, in a culture of survival, compassion is the rarest of human traits. These are important lessons, but they can overwhelm you if you......more

Meine bleibende Dankbarkeit für dieses Buch! In meiner Studentenbude in Halle hatte ich Wanzen in den Wänden, die richtigen, die beißen und Blut saugen. Meine damalige Freundin hat gegoogelt, was man machen soll, ich habe in Begleys Buch nachgeschlagen, weil ich mich daran erinnert habe, dass es darum......more