The English Years

Norbert Gstein

Be prepared to be disturbed by this disquieting investigation of the effect on a Jewish internee of the policy of internment of 'enemy aliens' in England during the Second World War. An elegant and poetic solving of a mysterious enigma against a background of the horrors of lost and stolen identity, of death and survival, of failed love - worth reading again when you've unravelled the clues!

Extract

Still keeping your eyes on them you lay down, persuading yourself that they, in themselves, were a guarantee that none of you would be sent back, turned out of the country and abandoned to your fate, as some of the men had been suggesting only that afternoon, voicing their worst fears, or exchanged for English prisoners of war, no, you told yourself, these were mere rumours, nothing could happen to you in the care of these soldiers, they'd protect you from intruders, would leap to their feet without a sound, a finger to their lips, and when they told you not to worry that would be enough.

Parallels