Alison Pick's Far to Go
This is one of those books where the backstory (see an interview with the author here) is almost more interesting than the novel itself. After finding out that her grandparents were actually Jewish (they emigrated to Canada in 1939 and decided to live as Christians b/c they were afraid), Pick was inspired to write a story about some other Czech Jews in the 1930s. Narrated mostly by the family nanny Marta, the story is at times riveting and at times very frustrating (I wanted to give several of the characters a shake on more than one occasion). I also thought the ending was kind of a narrative cop-out after the serious drama that came before, but otherwise the writing was solid--Pick moves back in time between the past and the present very effectively, adding an extra layer to the proceedings. B/B+.
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