Two friends, Martin Schulse and Max Eisenstein, run a San Francisco art gallery together until Martin goes back to Germany in 1932. They write to each other, and as Hitler takes power, the letters change from warm greetings to ominous silences. Max, who is Jewish, is trying to get his sister Griselle out of Germany, and Martin's replies show a man putting his own safety first. Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, writing in 1938 and publishing it in Story magazine, kept the whole book in letters and telegrams, and its force lies in what is left unsaid.
It's quick to read in a single sitting and works well in book clubs or classes. Anyone interested in how friendships and consciences fail under political pressure will find the final exchange hard to forget.
Thought-provoking; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Story Seeker. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1938
- Language
- EN
