Far To Go By Alison Pick, Headline Fiction, $29.99
Even in retrospect, it’s almost impossible to comprehend evil on such a massive scale as Hitler’s Nazi Party.
That inability explains a lot about why Jewish families such as Alison Pick’s fictional Bauers didn’t try to flee until it was much too late.
Secular and wealthy, Pavel and Anneliese Bauer discuss the approaching German threat from their comfortable home in Czechoslovakia with an infuriating complacency.
Pick slowly engulfs her ordinary family in the tsunami of Nazism that spreads across Europe.
As they become increasingly threatened they put their trust in the wrong people, and fail to trust the most loyal when they should.
Of vital importance is getting their little boy, Pepik, to safety, and it’s his journey and his total incomprehension and boyish hope that packs a powerful emotional punch.
The story is told by a mystery narrator and archival letters. It spans decades and comes full circle to a bittersweet but strangely satisfying end.
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