Betsy Carter

It is intriguing that the author waited until both of her parents had passed away before writing this book. Just like in this book, her parents were German Jews who escaped before Hitler's full scale of them for extermination.

Egon Schneider, the main character of this book was the son of successful naturalists. His father wrote about birds and his mother illustrated them. Egon felt closest to his mother and his father mainly ignored him. So when he died he felt very alone. Not having the talent to capture the special qualities in drawing them, Egon decided to become an ophthamalogist. He and his roommate, Meyer, in college were very different but they started a lifelong friendship. They both escaped Germany for New York just in time.

A group of German immigrants formed and Egon's affection for animals lead to his meeting an Irish immigrant, Catrina. The German Jews had fled Germany because of the impending Holocaust. They had no choice if they wanted to stay alive but many did not believe what was happening until they barely could make it out. One of the basic themes of the book was whether or not they would
assimilate. In the group, Meyer was the closest to do that but an older couple who kept thinking they would return to the beloved home could not do that,

I enjoyed reading this book very much, especially the parts that animals played in this story. The characters were complex and it was difficult to stop reading.

I received a finished copy of this book from a win from FirstReads. My thoughts and feelings in this review are totally my own… (meer)