January 2, 2023
Maetis (Murder in Manhattan, as John Matthews) draws on the milieu of Sigmund Freud for a well-crafted Holocaust story. In the late 1920s, Freud forms a group of psychiatrists, writers, and other intellectuals to share ideas. But in 1938, after the Anschluss, membership in “Freud’s Circle” proves risky, as Nazi officials seeking to identify Jews for deportation use old photos of the Circle to do so. Jewish cousins Mathias Kraemer and Johannes Namal, crime novelists and Circle members, are alarmed when SS officer Heinrich Schnabel enters the Cafe Mozart where they’re seated and demands that the Jews present make themselves known to him. Turns out the net is tightening around the cousins. (A prologue, set in 1942, previews doom for at least one of the protagonists with a view of a railway car filled with the dead, the dying, and the sick.) With solid prose and thoughtful characterizations, Maetis ratchets up the suspense as Schabel searches for Jews and the cousins’ efforts to avoid capture gets an assist from a secret ring that provides those in danger with new identities. Historical fiction fans will be pleased.
December 16, 2022
Vienna, Austria, 1938, directly after Anschluss, was a dangerous place for Jewish people. SS officers were everywhere inquiring about the nationalities of people on buses, in movie theaters, and in caf�s. Many Jews were fleeing Austria to avoid being sent to concentration camps. Mathias Kraemer and Johannes Namal are cousins, friends, part of a well-known writer's circle that included Sigmund Freud--and they are Jewish. The time has come for them to make the decision to leave Vienna or falsify papers and identities with the intention of staying. The risks for both are high as not all family members can travel, there are SS officers specifically looking into Mathias' and Johannes' backgrounds, and time is growing short for all Jews in Austria. Tension runs high as readers follow along with Mathias, Johannes, and others as they risk everything to stay alive. With heart-racing scenes, Maetis, who writes thrillers as John Matthews, recounts the desperation of hiding one's secrets when it's a matter of life or death. This is a powerful book about courage, family, and survival.
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