Die For You

Finished January 15

Die For You by Lisa Unger

This is a fast-moving suspense novel that I had trouble putting down. 

Isabel has been married to Marcus for a few years, after he showed up at a bookstore where she was doing an author reading. Before that, she'd thought that a deep and lasting relationship like that of her sister's was something that would never be hers.

There have been a couple of blips in their marriage, but things are going well as the novel begins. Marcus leaves for work one morning, prepping for an important meeting, and doesn't come home. The following day, when Isabel goes to his office in search of answers, there is a dramatic raid there and she is left with even more questions.

When the police begin to dig into her husband's past and find that he wasn't who she thought he was, she remains determined to get to the bottom of things, and find the real answers as to why he married her and where he has gone. 

Isabel is a writer of novels herself and her mind works in problem-solving ways on a regular basis as she creates her plots. She is good at piecing together bits and pieces to make a story, and she begins to do that with her husband. She has some bits from her own experiences with him, and more from others who interacted with him, and as she researches she finds more disparate pieces that bring her to follow a faint trail back to his native Czech Republic. 

I loved Isabel as a woman who has been taken advantage of and won't give up in her search for answers. She has been underestimated by more than just her husband, and she faces the unknown with facts. 

HHhH

Finished July 17
HHhH by Laurent Binet, translated by Sam Taylor, read by John Lee

This is one of the most interesting novels I've ever read. Let's start with the title, which is an acronym for Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich, which translated to English is Himmler's brain is called Heydrich. The Heydrich of this book is Reinhard Heydrich, an high-ranking Nazi officer, one of the organizers of Kristallnacht, responsible for coming up with the final solution for the Jews, who was in charge of the Nazi-occupied Czech Republic at the time of his assassination where he worked to suppress Czech culture, and was an extremely cruel man. He had many nicknames: The Butcher of Prague, The Blond Beast, The man with the iron heart, . He was also president of Interpol at the time
Two men, a Slovak and a Czech were recruited by the Czech government in exile and the British to carry out the assassination. Their names are Jozef Gabčik and Jan Kubiš, and they were parachuted into the occupied nation by the British in an attempt to keep any blame falling on the local people. Their task was codenamed Operation Anthropoid. During the assassination attempt, the British gun they were using jammed, and a bomb was thrown at the car instead, injuring Heydrich. At first the men thought that the assassination attempt was unsuccessful as Heydrich was taken to the hospital and operated on by a German doctor, but he ended up dying of an infection a few days later.
This book goes into the the history of all three men, the situation in the Czech Republic and the growing unhappiness of the people there. It also talks about the repercussions of the assassination where two villages were razed to the ground and almost all the inhabitants killed, many others were tortured, and the men were betrayed by one of the own comrades.
Besides all of that extremely interesting story, the author is himself a character of a sort in the book, as he describes his research, his passion for the subject, the troubles of writing about real historical figures and events, what is created and what is fact. Binet writes something, correct it, wonders aloud, and looks for more and more information until he realizes he must focus.
A fascinating style, and totally engrossing story based on real and horrible events.

Letters from the Lost

Finished February 9
Letters from the Lost: a memoir of discovery by Helen Waldstein Wilkes

This book is a compilation of letters from Helen's relatives that never made it out of the Czech Republic to safety and most of whom died in the Holocaust. There is also a few letters from an uncle that survived the camps, but was utterly changed by them. More than the letters, the book describes Helen's parents' own flight to Canada, their struggles to make a living in their adopted country, and the silence they maintained about the lost family. Helen describes this well, including her own experiences with exclusion and her gradual interest in the past. She talks about her research, her visits to the Czech Republic, searching for news of her family and revisiting family homes and memories. A moving book, open and honest about the difficulties and the rewards of such a search.