Soaring Underground [Hardcover]

Compass Press (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1996

Now in book form, this is the intensely moving first-person account of "the Auschwitz Memoirist's extraordinary manuscript" described in Philip Roth's Patrimony: A True Story.

This is the true story of a young man born at the wrong time in the wrong place. Lothar Orbach's family proudly traces its German heritage back to the fifteenth century, but that is no help to a Jewish boy coming of age in Hitler's Berlin.

At the center of this world gone mad is Lothar, outwardly a cagey, amoral street thug, inwardly a sensitive, romantic youth, devoted son, and increasingly religious Jew, clinging to his humanity and his belief in God but letting his irrepressible spirit soar while underground.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Howells House; First Edition edition (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929590155
• ISBN-13: 978-0929590158
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,147,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Great Book!, May 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Soaring Underground (Hardcover)

We had to read a book for school on the Holocaust and I picked this book! Although it's an autobiography, it reads like a story - I couldn't put it down! It's definitely worth buying!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great story about survival under the Nazis, March 12, 2000

By 

Norman L. Weiss "normanlee1" (Boca Raton, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soaring Underground (Hardcover)

The story is facinating and causes one to think what they might have done if faced with the same danger. Larry tells how he learned his lessons of life from others and how he entered adulthood under such trying circumstances; how important food and shelter was and how he was able to cope while exposed to maximum danger. It will make a great film when someone takes it to Hollywood.

4.0 out of 5 stars Surviving the holocaust, January 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Soaring Underground (Hardcover)

I recently read this extemely moving biography.The author, Larry Orbach and his daughter, wrote an inspiring story about the life of a young German-Jewish teenager struggling to survive in Berlin.The reader can feel the gradual isolation of Larry, or Lothar, his original name. He and his family were loyal Germans and his father said that he would never leave Germany. After Larry's father dies in a concentration camp, he devotes himself to looking after his mother. What I found inspiring was Larry's accounts of friendship with some Germans who reached out to help him. His mother finds shelter with a Communist family who become close friends.The reader can feel Larry's growing isolation. The few friends he had couldn't stop him from being deported to Auschwitz, but they gave him loyalty and companionship. Larry has to keep moving to avoid being caught, and lives in a variety of places,including a brothel. Larry is very honest and does not to hesitate to relate the incidents where he took part in robberies etc. Some of the events are terrifying, but the book is full of hope. The book shows the reader the effects of both evil and goodness. I will remember all of these characters for a long time. The author describes his friends and enemies very clearly. I would highly recommend this biography.