Tuesday 2 July 2013

Two Brothers - Ben Elton

Based in Germany and starting in 1920 with the arrival of a set of twins to a
Jewish family this book has the pportunity to become a glorified history of the holocaust with lots of titillating cruelty added in. It doesn't take the opportunity and is instead a sensitive tale of the lives of one family and their friends. When one twin dies at birth an immediate replacement is available in the hospital and so a life of deception begins. But how long can a Jewish mother keep secret from a child that he's not Jewish?
While the history is in the book a lot of the story is pre war and tells of the insidious way the German mind was distorted until horrendous became normal and acceptable.
This is a skillful book with subterfuge all the way through from the 20's to the early 21st century.
A credit to it's creator.

Publisher - Bantam Press

No comments:

Post a Comment