Customer Reviews
Beautiful story - By: SJSmith, 18 Jan 2008 
Difficult to review without referring to the plot, therefore this is quite short. The story is only 64 pages but it feels rich with detail. Originallly published in 1938 this story caused quite a stir!
It is written as a series of letters between a Jewish American living in San Francisco & his former business partner who had returned to Germany. It's sad, tragic & evocative. I'd like everyone I know to read this memorable story.
Fantastic book! - By: Tyler Durden, 17 Aug 2007 
This book was recommended on BBC R4's 'A Good Read'. It is so well written & uses your own imagination to read between the lines. I read this in 1 sitting & wanted to go right back to the start - had my wife not grabbed it off me!
Reader's Digest dropped its no-fiction-rule to publish this book - By: Robin Pain, 23 Apr 2007 An exchange of letters sounds boring but in this case it is a necessary formula for a unique "trick" - that is not a trick.
The idea is so very perfect that it would be difficult to make if fail even with poor writing but it is well written & carefully crafted.
Where Orwell's Animal Farm slowly & relentlessly crushes the hard diamond of Totalitarianism with a road roller, this book splits it with a single expert tap exactly on a cleavage fault, in a blink of the eye.
Sorry to be so vague but you can't describe it without giving some of it away - not that it depends on that but you *must* read it as is with no preconceptions & also you must take it at face value because in the end there is no trick.
Profoundly thought-provoking - By: hiljean, 20 Apr 2007 I bought this book after hearing about it on Radio 4's "A Good Read" & am amazed that I had never heard of it before. It is a book which should be made essential reading in alll secondary schools. Although it deals with the events leading up to the Holocaust, through the relationship between a Jew & a non-Jew who returns to Germany, the devastating effects of propaganda & misinformation are timeless & important themes. What gives this work even more power is the information contained in the Afterword explaining how & why this book came to be written. It reminds us too, that we have a duty to inform ourselves about what is happening in the world & that we must not just shrug our shoulders . . . but sadly it seems we still are (Darfur, Rwanda, the list goes on).
The Best Thirty Minute Read Ever - By: Stephen Conyers, 07 Oct 2004 I found this book breath taking. I felt like a spy, opening & reading these letters between these two fantastic people.
The book reallly shows how Hitler managed to win over the minds of the German people, whether they wanted him to or not. I also feel that its brevity adds to its poinancy & this book will stay with me forever.
I personallly feel that alll GCSE history students (myself being one)should read this book. It only takes 30 minutes, & reallly shows both the political & social views in Germany in 1933. Of course, when reading a book one must remember the context. This was written in 1939 when governments alll over the world were denying what was happening in Germany, & now looking back on it, it shows the striking difference between the public view, & the offical view of a country.
Overalll, a beautiful book that will stay with me forever.
