My Last Lament by James William Brown

Young Aliki is a witness to her own father's execution at the hands of the Nazis and lives the rest of her childhood with a local woman and her son, Takis.  When the woman hides a Jewish woman and her son, Stelios, Aliki and Takis are exposed to the world of puppetry by Stelios.  The Nazis that occupy the Greek village learn of the Jews in the basement and they kill the women and the children must fend for themselves.  The children earn money by performing puppet shows for a country that is trying to heal itself after the devastation of World War II and the fall of the Nazis.

I usually like historical novels about World War II and the holocaust but this book just didn't do it for me.  I enjoyed the first third of the book but after the Germans left Greece, the story wasn't as interesting.  I think the story would have been better if the story was centered around Stelios and his mother hiding in the basement of Aliki's home but after that point, there was too much going on and it became a very slow read.  The puppetry seemed to take center stage when it was a less important topic of the book.  The characters were very developed and there was a great representation of mental illness in Takis but they couldn't make up for the lack of a great story.  I would recommend this book to someone who is interested in more about the aftereffects of World War II and doesn't mind that there is a lot of unimportant fluff. 

My rating:
★★☆☆☆

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