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Haunting echoes of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago and Irwin Shaw’s The Young Lions waft through this excellent novel of the turbulent times encompassing Europe and the far reaches of the globe between World Wars I and II. Similar to those groundbreaking tales, Mayer’s story is most concerned with lives rent asunder by historically catastrophic events. By keeping his focus on a small set of human beings caught up in the upheaval of entire populations, he is able to weave a narrative that is as poignant as it is riveting.
Ernst is a young Berliner beset by events cascading around him. Germany is in chaos. The loss of the First World War and the harsh realities visited on his country by The Treaty of Versailles has left him and millions like him ashamed and humiliated. He longs to do something to help his fatherland regain its past glory. Falling in with the wrong crowd, he takes part in a political assassination that begins a series of consequences he could never have imagined.
The author does a superb job of pulling readers into Ernst’s hopes and fears as he grapples with familial obligations, divided loyalties, and trials by fire and by courts both earthly and heavenly. As myriad calamities unfold around him, two things remain steadfast—the need to come to grips with his own worth or the lack of it, and his undying love for the beautiful Lisa, who always seems just beyond his reach. Mayer’s sweeping saga is simultaneously a compelling chronicle of history, a gripping tale of high adventure, and an enthralling love story in the classic tradition. If such fare whets your literary appetite, you’ll be glad you indulged.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review