Mischling

Starred review from June 6, 2016
Without sentimentality, Konar’s gripping novel explores the world of the children who were the subjects of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele’s horrifying experiments at Auschwitz. Stasha and Pearl, 12-year-old Jewish sisters from Poland, are placed in Mengele’s “zoo” because they are twins, rather than being sent to the gas chambers. Stasha is impulsive, a little melancholy, and given to storytelling; Pearl is more restrained and observant, and less dependent on her sister. Mengele selects one of the sisters to torture and uses the other as a control in his experiment. The two narrate alternating chapters of their story, which begins when they are sent to the camp in the autumn of 1944. The latter part takes the novel into the chaotic months after Auschwitz was abandoned, when some of the inmates were set on a death march and others were liberated by the Allies. Konar neatly avoids making Mengele the center of attention, instead focusing on the girls and the people they meet in the zoo, including brash, mouthy Bruna; conflicted Dr. Miri, a Jewish physician conscripted to work for “Uncle Doctor” Mengele; and messenger boy Peter, whose affection for Pearl threatens the closeness of the twins. Konar makes every sentence count; it’s to her credit that the girls never come across as simply victims: they’re flawed, memorable characters trying to stay alive. This is a brutally beautiful novel. Agent: Jim Rutman, Sterling Lord Literistic.

Starred review from December 5, 2016
Actress Johansson’s audio narration of Konar’s achingly beautiful novel is notable for its light touch in vocalizing, so vividly, the 12-year-old identical twins Pearl and Stasha, who were tortured by the Angel of Death, Josef Mengele, at Auschwitz. The Jewish twins, from Poland, are separated from their family upon arrival at the death camp and taken to Mengele’s “zoo,” along with other twins and children with albinism, for barbaric experimentation. Pearl and Stasha take turns describing their encounters with Mengele and with other characters; their telepathic-like bond binds them close, even as they become physically separated and one twin is subjected to horrific suffering. Reader Johansson captures the novel’s focus on the twins, not Mengele, and conveys their childlike innocence, even as they endure agonizing physical pain and sadistic mind games. Johansson doesn’t make the sisters’ voices highly distinguishable from each other, which would be a flaw in a less adept voice actor, but it’s a wise calculation here that keeps the focus on Konar’s gorgeous, elegant prose. An LB/Boudreaux hardcover.

July 1, 2016
A literary exploration of Nazi experiments.Stasha and Pearl are 12 years old when they arrive at Auschwitz. The fact that they are 12 is insignificant to their captors; the fact that they are twins is not. Exceptional by virtue of their birth, they will join other children like themselves as special subjects for Josef Mengele. It's under his regime that Stasha and Pearl, two halves of the same whole, are transformed into distinct individuals. And it's at a death-camp concert--just one manifestation of Mengele's perversity--that Pearl disappears. After her liberation, Stasha struggles through the ruins of the world she once knew, searching for her missing half and hungering for revenge against the monster who ruled Auschwitz. It's not easy to critique a Holocaust novel. Even if the author didn't thank particular survivors in her acknowledgements--and she does--it's difficult to escape the sense that any complaint about form or technique might be read as disparagement of the project of remembering. Certainly, Konar's fiction draws the reader's attention to a gruesome paradox: the veneer of science only makes Nazi atrocities more horrifying, just as the meticulous medical attention and occasional kindness Mengele offered his subjects only damn him as a monster. Konar's fiction also draws the reader's attention to Konar's style as a writer. The synopsis at the beginning of this review is accurate, but it's deceptive if it suggests that plot--or forward momentum of any kind--is an important element of the book. When it comes to craft, Konar is clearly most interested in language, in metaphor and invention. Surely, there are readers who will appreciate this. Some, though, might find that the poetry puts too much distance between the reader and the reality of Auschwitz.Konar approaches a difficult subject with artistic ambition.

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Starred review from August 1, 2016
No zoo ever operated on more devilish principles than the cruel zoo of paired human specimens maintained by Josef Mengele, who culled twins from the prisoners at Auschwitz for insidious comparative experiments. Yet in the factual testimonies of survivors of this monstrous zoo, Konar finds inspiration for fiction of rare poignancyand astonishing hope. Daughters of a Jewish physician spirited into oblivion by Nazi goons, the 12-year-old twins Stasha and Pearl Zagorski find themselves among Auschwitz Zoo specimens, in the hands of a doctor fiendishly unlike their tender father. Victims themselves of Mengele's malevolence and witnesses of his atrocities against others, Stasha and Pearl sustain each other through role-playing games of death-defying imagination. Unfolding out of Stasha's anguished psyche, Konar's compelling narrative conveys a surviving twin's intense grief when Pearl disappearsand her courageous refusal to succumb to that grief, or to pain, starvation, or despair, even in the waning months of the war, when Auschwitz's overlords desperately destroy evidence of their crimes. With Feliksanother zoo specimen who has lost a twin siblingStasha escapes from a death march of Auschwitz inmates, aflame with fantasies of vengeance against Mengele and with luminous if jumbled dreams of a better future. An unforgettable sojourn of the spirit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2016

Horrific beyond words is not too strong a characterization of this first novel, featuring the young Polish Jewish twins Stasha and Pearl Zamorski, who have been interned in the Auschwitz death camp with other members of their family. The girls catch the eye of Dr. Josef Mengele, who is fascinated with twins. "Uncle," as inmates call Mengele, isolates them with other twins in what they call the "Zoo," where he often treats them kindly, bestowing special favors on them to keep them alive. But he also subjects them to gruesome, nonscientific experiments that result in great suffering and, usually, death. While bonding in the Zoo with other "experiments," as these young victims call themselves, Pearl and Stasha rely on their closeness to survive the horrors. Eventually, Pearl disappears, and Stasha's determination to find out what happened to her propels the narrative. VERDICT Titled after the pejorative Nazi German word for "mixed blood," though Zwillinge ("twins") might have been more apt, this searing work deepens our understanding of the Holocaust. It is highly recommended for that reason and for its stunningly original approach to a subject that would be too awful to read about if rendered in straightforward prose. [See Prepub Alert, 3/28/16.]--Edward B. Cone, New York

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2016

Horrific beyond words is not too strong a characterization of this first novel, featuring the young Polish Jewish twins Stasha and Pearl Zamorski, who have been interned in the Auschwitz death camp with other members of their family. The girls catch the eye of Dr. Josef Mengele, who is fascinated with twins. "Uncle," as inmates call Mengele, isolates them with other twins in what they call the "Zoo," where he often treats them kindly, bestowing special favors on them to keep them alive. But he also subjects them to gruesome, nonscientific experiments that result in great suffering and, usually, death. While bonding in the Zoo with other "experiments," as these young victims call themselves, Pearl and Stasha rely on their closeness to survive the horrors. Eventually, Pearl disappears, and Stasha's determination to find out what happened to her propels the narrative. VERDICT Titled after the pejorative Nazi German word for "mixed blood," though Zwillinge ("twins") might have been more apt, this searing work deepens our understanding of the Holocaust. It is highly recommended for that reason and for its stunningly original approach to a subject that would be too awful to read about if rendered in straightforward prose. [See Prepub Alert, 3/28/16.]--Edward B. Cone, New York

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2016

Lots of push is planned for this painfully startling debut featuring twin sisters Pearl and Stasha, who are subjected to horrific experiments at Auschwitz by the camp's notorious physician, Dr. Josef Mengele. Pearl eventually disappears, and after liberation, Stasha joins forces with another survivor to search for her. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.