A review by jetlaggedjanet
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman

5.0

I read this book for a book club (Long Island Reads) and loved it. I read it in two days. There is so much to say about it, but to keep it brief the book first depicts a well-to-do Jewish family in Praugue, the artistic daughter who falls in love, and at the hight of their romance the drastic change in their lives as the Nazi influence reaches Czechoslovakia. Then her story about Terezin is different than other holocaust books (the club deemed it 'holocaust-lite' if you will allow). The story was about resistance within the camps. Yes, they were horrible and she writes about it, but even more important to this story was how art kept her alive, and how it changed things. It gave the victims hope and a feeling of resistance. Some of it reached the outside world. It was very moving.

There is so much to say, and I heard many opinions, but overall it is a well crafted book. Tragic, but also an incredible story.