The List

The List by Martin Fletcher

What was it like to have been one of the few Jews that managed to get out of Germany, Austria or Poland before the Nazis rolled in and took control?  This story, written as a novel by journalist and foreign correspondent Martin Fletcher, is basically a story about Fletcher's parents.  Fletcher incorporates his family's story into his narrative of a young Jewish family, Holocaust survivors, struggling to stay afloat in their adopted country of London, England.  This poignant and heart wrenching story opens in London with the celebration of Germany's surrender.  But the war does not end with VE Day for Georg and Edith, a newly married couple, anxiously hoping to start a family and a new life, while at the same time awaiting word on the fate of their loved ones.  They each keep a List of the names of their family members. 

As they struggle to start over, each day brings the anguish of no news about their family or confirmation of another family member or friend who was murdered in the Holocaust.  They tearfully cross off another name from their list.  Edith eventually gets word her beautiful cousin Anna has survived and will be coming to London.  But Anna's stay in Auschwitz has changed her beyond recognition.  Fletcher not only successfully recreates this world where the survivors are caught in limbo, but he also reopens a painful chapter in London history. 

While Edith and Georg struggle to rebuild their lives, they face the threat of a growing anti-semitism movement in London.  Englishmen are starting to resent the Jewish refugees taking homes and jobs, as their soldiers return home to unemployment and shortage of housing.  They want to expel the Jewish refugees and send them back to their home countries.  After Edith makes a speech at a meeting about repatriation petitions, Georg becomes a target for retribution. Their mysterious neighbor, Ismael, an Egyptian Arab living at the boarding house, steps in to protect Georg.  This introduces a whole new subplot with possibly deadly consequences for Georg, Edith and Anna.

This deeply touching novel explores the themes of hope, prejudice, loss and love. It is both a breathless thriller of postwar sabotage and a heartrending and historically accurate portrait of an almost forgotten era.  This is what is meant when they say a good book transports you to another time and place.