Nick Beattie

Even if it is true I find it hard to believe. It is a fantasy love story. I think it misuses the Auschwitz setting to dramatise storytelling that is superficial. In fact I think that the Auschwitz setting is employed to hold the attention of readers who would probably put the book to one side when they tire of the superficial treatment of characters and context. Characters lack substance, their behavior and actions are blurred and the description of the setting leaves much to the imagination of the reader. It is only that the concentration camp environment has been so well described by others that the reader is able to conjure up an image at all.