Born to a secure, middle-class Polish Jewish family, seventeen-year-old Reuven works alongside his father, an artisan businessman whose shop creates the finest handmade umbrellas in Poland. But the family’s peaceful life shatters when the Nazis invade their homeland, igniting World War II. With terrifying brutality, the Nazis confiscate their business, evict them from their home, and strip away their rights, threatening the lives of the city’s Jewish population, including Reuven and Zelda, the girl he loves.
Shortly after the Nazi occupation, Zelda and her family disappear, and Reuven and his father are forced into backbreaking physical labor that nearly kills them. For the young man and his family, the only chance to survive is escape—and some of them will die trying.
Fleeing a Nazi ambush through the surrounding forest, shot and wounded, Reuven is found by a local farmer who has never met a Jew—and agrees to help because he needs the boy to work the farm with him. The farmer’s wife, however, is not as kind. Her betrayal forces a desperate Reuven to escape. He embarks on a perilous journey through the Polish countryside, determined to reach the Kraków ghetto where he hopes to reunite with Zelda, whose life has also been forever changed by the horrors of occupation and war.
A love story and a story of family, The Umbrella Maker’s Son is a riveting, heartfelt, and beautiful tale of survival and unexpected hope in the face of terror and violence. A chronicle of triumph, it joins the ranks of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and other memorable works of modern Holocaust literature.
About The Author
Mr. Lending is a debut novelist and an Academy Award™-nominated and national Emmy-winning documentary producer. Over the past 38 years, his film work has broadcasted nationally on major US networks and internationally throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
My Review
This is a read that often had me holding my breath, my heart in my throat, and yes, I know this story is fiction, but the evil that invaded Poland during WWII was real.
The story focuses on two families, both Jewish, and living in Poland when the unthinkable happens, and we journey as the horrific crimes against humanity go on.
Some of the decisions that are made to leave and escape, found myself shaking my head, but we follow the writer.
Do they all survive? Even when I know the answers I would have to say no, but this is a journey with surprises.
I did love the ending, so keep page turning, and yes, answers come!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Harper Perennial, and was not required to give a positive review.
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