Bryan Malessa

This novel was unusual in its brevity and scope of history. I felt the author made a wise choice to avoid writing a sentimental novel and instead stuck to the facts and let the action of the story spell out this profound changes this family faces. There is no sympathy, simply a step by step march through the eyes of a family dislocated from their home in the closing days of World War II. If you're looking for a heartwarming tale, look elsewhere. If you're interested in peering into a world few have been privy to then I strongly suggest this novel, the first written in English of this event some fifty years after the fact.… (mehr)

Good descriptive writing. Strong narrative. Interesting subject matter. But because I have read so many harrowing historical accounts of people being forced out of their homes, I feel there is a superficiality to this book. The Daily Telegraph blurb says that "Malessa has researched his debut novel thoroughly and… he achieves a stark, moving narrative", and this is true but he does not achieve the starkness, or the narrative quality, of the authentic historical accounts given by those peoples unfortunate enough to have suffered the effects of Hitler's policy of Liebensraum.… (mehr)