*Starred Review* What people had to do to survive is a theme common to Holocaust literature, and that theme is both strongly and freshly developed in this poignant and ironically inspiring novel by an Austrian novelist. Hackl bases his slim but not slight novel on an actual event. A political prisoner in Auschwitz, one Rudi Friemel, previously met and had a little boy with a young Spanish woman, Marga (Rudi, an Austrian, had been a soldier on the Republican—read “Soviet-backed”—side in the devastating Spanish civil war of the 1930s). For propaganda purposes, camp officials let Marga’s and Rudi’s families into the camp for a day, so that he and she can marry. The actual story is, obviously, quite moving, and Hackl brilliantly renders it into fiction. Told from various points of view by individuals involved in the Rudi-Marga story, primarily in the voice of Marga’s sister, the narrative sees Rudi emerging not only as the major character in the drama (although, interestingly, we never hear from him) but also a man at once human and heroic. Although initially somewhat disjointed, the novel soon achieves a comfortable rhythm and fluidity. A major contribution to Holocaust fiction. --Brad Hooper
Review
"His most ambitious project as a writer so far Convincingly tells the story of a great love during times of war. A complex and demanding book, and it is probably Hackl's darkest and saddest work to date Treads the fine line between literature and literary-historical journalism... A strange little book, shocking and moving, yet tender and kind at the same time This quietly moving book demonstrates why Erich Hackl is unique"
