What an incredible story! And the part that was the hardest to believe was a historically documented event in the story. The more I read WWII novels, the more amazed I am at the bravery and determination of ordinary people such as myself. It is true we do not realize our capabilities until put into a situation. But I do not know if I could rise to the level described in this novel. These people went above and beyond to save the Jews and fight the Germans through the Resistance. This was my first book about the Nazis in Amsterdam (although I have seen the Anne Frank and Corrie Ten Boom movies). Everyone must read it. It will restore one's faith in people. And it will remind us that God is always working. ( )

A moving tale of Nazi occupation of Amsterdam and the amazing effort of university professor Josef Held to help a young Jewish student. It was a heartrending story of love and determination in the face of opposition. Recommend for all those that enjoy a good historical fiction novel. ( )

A moving tale of Nazi occupation of Amsterdam and the amazing effort of university professor Josef Held to help a young Jewish student. It was a heartrending story of love and determination in the face of opposition. Recommend for all those that enjoy a good historical fiction novel. ( )

A View Across The Rooftops tells the story of Professor Held, and did you know that Held is Hero in Dutch? This professor is very much a hero. In Amsterdam during WWII, the Dutch people fought against the Nazis, and one of the ways they did that was to hide Jewish people wherever and however they could. Professor Held did just that! This book was just wonderful! An amazing story, told by a gifted writer! At the end of this novel, which is a fiction book based on a true story, she tells you the story behind this book. This is where you learn what started her on this journey, and how this story would just not let her go.

The question that kept me up last night, well after I had finished the book, was the same as it was for the author.... How far would I go to save another human being? We always say I would do anything, but would you? Could you go as far as these people did?

Such an amazing book Suzanne Kelman!!
Thank you for sharing this story!!

I received this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. ( )

A View Across the Rooftops by Suzanne Kelmam
Source: NetGalley and Bookouture
Rating: 5/5 stars

By 1941, three things are happening in Professor Joseph Held’s world: 1) he is twenty years in to mourning the loss of his beloved wife; 2) the Nazi’s have occupied his town of Amsterdam and; 3) he is harboring a young Jewish student in his attic. All three things have the potential to end more than one good man’s life.

As a professor of mathematics, Joseph Held has always found solace in his number, formulas, equations, and algorithms. Math never changes, math never dies, and the knowledge of math can change the way one sees the world. What math cannot do is bring back Professor Held’s wife, force the Nazi’s to cease their madness, nor save the life of the young man hiding in the professor’s attic. For so many years, Professor Held has found comfort and solace in his numbers, his routine, and his loneliness, but with the coming of Hitler and the Nazi occupation, all the professor’s comfort and solace have been brutally taken away.

While Professor Held has never considered himself a particularly brave or courageous man, he has always seen himself as honorable and protecting his young student is simply the right thing to do. The professor’s attic is never used and hardly remembered by anyone who has been to his home which makes it the perfect place to hide. As the years of the war and the occupation stretch on, Professor Held and his fugitive learn of one another’s lives, hopes and dreams, of the frustrations and losses they have both experienced, and the toll the interminable war has taken on them. There is never a moment not filled with fear, anguish, paranoia, and anxiety, but some of those moments are eclipsed by small bits of happiness and hope. As it turns out, an aging, lonely mathematics professor can learn to live again and a young, seemingly hopeless Jew can help pave the way in even the darkest of times.

The Bottom Line: I always feel icky saying “I loved this book” when the book focuses on such a desperate and barbarous time of human history. A View Across the Rooftops is another version of a very well-known story and one that is crafted beautifully. While many books in this genre tend to focus on the atrocities of the concentration camps, A View Across the Rooftops focuses on the lives of just a small number of people, a very courageous city, and a spirit that was not to be broken no matter how bleak the situation. While there are no truly graphic scenes in this book, the hardship, the loss, the desolation is certainly still conveyed and felt. One of the strengths of this book and how I feel it best conveyed not only the sadness and desperation of the situation, but also the fierce determination and resilience of the people involved is in how many years the book spans. A View Across the Rooftops spans almost the entire length of the war though the story moves quickly enough that you don’t feel like you’ve spent four plus years reading. In fact, the story moves at quite a good pace and that has to do primarily with the quality of the characters, the quality of the writing, and the overwhelming sense of tension and anxiety. You can’t stop reading for fear all will be found out and lost on the very next page. Amid all the awful, there is also a very real sense of hope – a feeling that despite all the city and her people have been through, there is still strength and love and hope. Those ideals are felt most strongly in the characters of Professor Held and his student; to follow their journey through so many days, months, and years is at times crippling and, at others, positively uplifting. While on the one hand I felt utter abhorrence at man’s treatment of man, I also come away with a renewed faith in humanity and our ability to overcome, to forgive, to help, to care, and to simply be courageous in the face of great fear and imminent danger. This is storytelling at its finest and for those who tend to be drawn to this time period, you will not be disappointed. ( )