Publisher: 20th January 2021 by Bookouture
Pages: 388 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: historical fiction, WWII
My Rating: 3 cups
Synopsis:
An unforgettable novel of human kindness, inspired by an incredible true story.
Snow falls and a woman prepares for a funeral she has long expected, yet hoped would never come. As she pats her hair and straightens her skirt, she tells herself this isn’t the first time she’s lost someone. Lifting a delicate, battered wristwatch from a little box on her dresser, she presses it to her cheek. Suddenly, she’s lost in memory…
January 1945. Dachau, Germany. As the train rattles through the bright, snowy Bavarian countryside, the still beauty outside the window hides the terrible scenes inside the train, where men and women are packed together, cold and terrified. Jewish watchmaker Isaac Schüller can’t understand how he came to be here, and is certain he won’t be leaving alive.
When the prisoners arrive at Dachau concentration camp, Isaac is unexpectedly pulled from the crowd and installed in the nearby household of Senior Officer Becher and his young, pretty, spoiled wife. With his talent for watchmaking, Isaac can be of use to Becher, but he knows his life is only worth something here as long as Becher needs his skills.
Anna Reznick waits table and washes linens for the Bechers, who dine and socialise and carry on as if they don’t constantly have death all around them. When she meets Isaac she knows she’s found a true friend, and maybe more. But Dachau is a dangerous place where you can never take love for granted, and when Isaac discovers a heartbreaking secret hidden in the depths of Becher’s workshop, it will put Anna and Issac in terrible danger…
My Thoughts
‘Each watch told a story to Isaac as he mended them. The way they were worn, the way they broke, gave clues to him like a detective at a crime scene.’
At its heart, The Watchmaker of Dachau is a story about friendships in the midst of the Holocaust of World War II. Interestingly, the novel takes place towards the end of the war, where the hope that the Americans were soon to arrive - that an end to the suffering of so many would soon occur, provided this tale with an interesting aspect.
This book is told from multiple perspectives - Isaac the older Jewish prisoner, Anna a young Jewish prisoner, Frederich the son of the camp commandant and an anonymous narrator of discovered letters that are interspersed throughout the tale. The first three voices are clear and strong with good alternating stories. I struggled with the letters as it seemed to slow the story down somewhat. There are other interesting secondary characters - Commandant Herr Becher and his wife (Frederich’s parents) and Greta, their cook. Both Isaac and Anna work at the Becher house which is how they encounter Frederich. This is a book that most definitely is character driven rather than focused on the plot.
The book provides a heartbreaking tale of the Holocaust but I did not find it as strong as other tales on this same topic - sad, interesting and realistic certainly, however, some things were tied up too neatly by the conclusion for my liking. That being said, there is a definite message of positivity throughout the book (I will never think of the aroma of lemons quite the same again) with the importance of finding joy in the everyday. There is a solid balance between the tale of the horrific Dachau experiences with the goodness of humanity shining through despite and inspite of those horrors.
‘One thing I cannot understand is that the hum of bees, the singing of birds and the colours of flowers still exist. How can things carry on as if nothing so horrific is happening around us?’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
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