KIRKUS REVIEWS. November 2016
This story is semi-autobiogrphical - or at least one of the characters is. Curtis' alter ego, the toddler Pavel Kohut, is safely born to a successful family of clothiers and the "bourgeois life of servants, fashions and Prague's social whirl" but soon finds himself in peril. His father, Willy, an importer of British textiles and an unapologetic anglophile, is arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of espionage. It's 1939, and the Nazis have marched into Czechoslovakia unopposed. Friends become collaborators, Willy's store is appropriated and Willy is beaten in prison until he appears to himself "a humiliated, disgusting wreck. Sophie, Pavel's mother, must prostrate herself before one sinister bureaucracy after another to try to learn her husband's whereabouts, even enduring blackmail and rape. When she does eventually track Willy down in Pankrac Prison, shut in with a corpse, she and her husband face the joint task of evading the Nazis and ferrying their young son to safety somewhere in the West. Their flight brings new identities, treacherous comrades and further degradation. Curtis could have made this book a by-numbers thriller, but it's too unblinkingly realistic to work as a potboiler. This is a serious novel about the most serious things in life; as Willy and Sophie travel further from their home stripped of their possessions, their sense of self at sea, they must continually re-evaluate who they are and what matters in their lives. Curtis is exceptionally good at depicting the strain and fractures of a marriage under constant violation from the outside and both evolve and change convincingly through the book. This is a book to be read in sobriety and one that will leave its readers more sober still. A suspenseful, convincing account of the hardships that Jews and refugees faced in a terrible war.
starsFirst rate reading experience
ByAmazon Customeron February 3, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
Verified Purchase
The Dragontail Buttonhole
The book takes the reader through the story of a Jewish family terrible ordeal at the beginning of WW2 in Prague. The sudden change of life as a result of the German invasion is compelling and keeps the reader on her/his toes. It starts with the description of the comfortable life style of a middle class Jewish family. Then, step by terrible step the impact of the German take-over downs on this family. The reader is exposed to the way some of the locals are taking advantage of the Jewish citizens misfortune and how the Nazi control exposes so much evil in human beings. Friendships forgotten, neighbors turn their back.
The author style makes the family experiences seem so lively and so close - as a reader you almost feel you are with this family members and share their horrible experiences.
2016-10-14
Curtis' debut novel tells of a family's flight through Europe, moments ahead of the Nazi war machine. This story is semiautobiographical—or at least one of the characters is. Curtis' alter ego, the infant Pavel Kohut, is safely born to a successful family of clothiers and the "bourgeois life of servants, fashions, and Prague's social whirl" but soon finds himself in peril. His father, Willy, an importer of British textiles and an unapologetic Anglophile, is arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of espionage. It's 1939, and the Nazis have marched into Czechoslovakia unopposed. Friends become collaborators, Willy's shop is appropriated, and Willy is beaten in prison until he appears to himself "a humiliated, disgusting wreck." Sophie, Pavel's mother, must prostrate herself before one sinister bureaucracy after another to try to learn her husband's whereabouts, even enduring blackmail and rape ("the emotional damage of giving herself to this swine would haunt her forever"). When she does eventually track Willy down in Pankrác Prison, shut in with a corpse, she and her husband face the joint task of evading the Nazis and ferrying their young son to safety somewhere in the unoccupied West. Their flight brings them new identities, treacherous comrades, and further degradation. Curtis could have made his book a by-the-numbers thriller, but it's too unblinkingly realistic to work as a potboiler. This is a serious novel about the most serious things in life; as Willy and Sophie travel farther from their home, increasingly stripped of their possessions, their senses of self at sea, they must continually re-evaluate who they are and what matters in their lives. Curtis is exceptionally good at depicting the strain and fractures of a marriage under constant violation from the outside, and both Willy and Sophie evolve and change convincingly through the book. This is a book to be read in sobriety and one that will leave its readers more sober still. A suspenseful, convincing account of the hardships that Jews and refugees faced in a terrible war.
