The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
This story will stay with you. Alyson Richman's prose is at times poetic. According to Richman, she started out wanting to write about artists in a Nazi concentration camp, and found herself tying this concept together with a "beautiful", but at times heart wrenching, love story. The story begins at the end and comes around full circle.
It is a novel of first love set in pre-war Prague, just prior to the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. The dreams of the two young lovers, Josef and Lenka, are shattered when they are separated by the Nazi Invasion. Josef's family was able to get visas for themselves and his new wife, Lenka. However, Lenka's family is not able to leave Prague. This forces a "sophie's choice" for Lenka. Should she choose to escape with her new husband, or stay behind with her family?
Richman's incremental descent into the horrors of the Holocaust lends enormous power to Lenka's experience. Believe me you will have tears in your eyes more than once during this beautifully written story. Richman does not shy away from her description of the ghettoes, the camps and the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis. I strongly recommend you get to know Lenka' and Josef.
I was just finishing this story, when the news broke in the New York Times about how the actual numbers from the Holocaust were underestimated. Researchers from the United States Holocaust Museum, Geoffrey Megargee and Martin Dean, estimate that 15 million to 20 million people died or were imprisoned in some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe. The total is three times higher than most historians had previously estimated. This is the link to The New York Times story if you have not seen it. After reading this article, get a copy of The Lost Wife. You won't put it down.
It is a novel of first love set in pre-war Prague, just prior to the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. The dreams of the two young lovers, Josef and Lenka, are shattered when they are separated by the Nazi Invasion. Josef's family was able to get visas for themselves and his new wife, Lenka. However, Lenka's family is not able to leave Prague. This forces a "sophie's choice" for Lenka. Should she choose to escape with her new husband, or stay behind with her family?
Richman's incremental descent into the horrors of the Holocaust lends enormous power to Lenka's experience. Believe me you will have tears in your eyes more than once during this beautifully written story. Richman does not shy away from her description of the ghettoes, the camps and the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis. I strongly recommend you get to know Lenka' and Josef.
I was just finishing this story, when the news broke in the New York Times about how the actual numbers from the Holocaust were underestimated. Researchers from the United States Holocaust Museum, Geoffrey Megargee and Martin Dean, estimate that 15 million to 20 million people died or were imprisoned in some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe. The total is three times higher than most historians had previously estimated. This is the link to The New York Times story if you have not seen it. After reading this article, get a copy of The Lost Wife. You won't put it down.
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