Book review

[riontel]

Finished latest Ben Elton's book, "Two Brothers". It's unlike anything he's ever written so far and came at me completely unexpected. I gave it five stars on Goodreads but will not say that I recommend it. No more than I would recommend The Diary of a Young Girl, or Babiy Yar, or Heavy Sand to a general audience. It's not the type of book one "recommends" except on a very personal basis. It's a story of two boys born on the same day in February of 1920 in Berlin, brothers in every way that mattered except by blood in the time when blood came to mean everything. Incidentally, on that same day the German National Socialist Party was also born. The next twenty five years of German history as witnessed by the boys and their family and friends as well as few glimpses into the future is what the book is about. Not an easy or entertaining read except in that Elton writes in such a way that you can't put down the book. Or I couldn't. Because, of course, how could one not relate?

Ben Elton based the book on the history of various members of his own family, some of whom, but not all, were lucky to escape Germany before most of the German Jews were exterminated.