Jacob's Oath

August 12, 2013
As he did in his first novel, The List, NBC news correspondent and National Jewish Book Award–winner Fletcher explores the experiences of Jews in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust in this engrossing, if unsettling, thriller. Jacob Klein survives the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but was unable to save his younger brother, Maxie, from death at the hands of an SS guard, Hans Seeler. At a medical facility where Jacob is being treated after his liberation in April 1945, he’s dumbfounded to see Seeler, who gets away. Sustained by his desire for revenge, Jacob joins a group of Jews who are also seeking Nazis to execute. Their quest alternates with the story of Sarah Kaufman, who survived the war in Berlin (and whose sister was a schoolmate of Jacob’s sister), but finds that she still must struggle to stay alive after a Russian soldier brutalizes her. The taut prose and multidimensional protagonists help make this a page-turner. Agent: Carol Mann, Carol Mann Agency.

August 15, 2013
A Holocaust survivor must choose between keeping the woman he loves and seeking revenge against the camp guard who beat his younger brother to death. After the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, survivor Jacob Klein joins the flow of refugees streaming across Europe on foot. His destination is Heidelberg, his hometown, but more importantly, it's the hometown of Hans Seeler, a sadistic SS guard who tormented Jacob's younger brother, Maxie, in the camp. As Maxie lay dying as a result of a particularly brutal beating dished out by Seeler, Jacob promised to avenge his death by killing Seeler. After arriving in Heidelberg, Jacob starts trading on the black market to make ends meet. One evening, he returns to his room to find a woman, Sarah Kaufman, sitting on his bed. She'd been given Jacob's address by the mayor's office, he being the only other Jew in town. Sarah had spent the war in hiding in Berlin but had returned to Heidelberg to keep a promise to meet her lover, who'd disappeared one night after going out to find food. As time passes, it becomes increasingly clear that Sarah's lover won't be returning, and she and Jacob fall in love. Jacob realizes that if he keeps his promise to his brother, he will likely be separated from Sarah, which significantly complicates his planned revenge. With an emotionally agile tone, Fletcher (Walking Israel, 2010, etc.) captures the chaos and desperation that followed the end of World War II in Europe. While some of the characters feel hollow, Fletcher does a particularly good job of bringing the titular character to life, imbuing him with a dark side brought to the fore by the horrors he's experienced. An expressive and generally well-told story of love and hatred, revenge and recovery.

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September 1, 2013
Jacob survives Bergen-Belsen, in part because of his vow to kill the SS guard who beat his younger brother to death. Resisting recruitment to go fight to establish Israel, he returns to Heidelberg, his pre-Nazi home and also the home of his brother's murderer. In Berlin, Sarah, who has managed to hide from the Nazis for three years, is raped by a Russian soldier when the Russians take the city. She too has vowed to go to Heidelberg, the place where she and her missing lover agreed to meet if they were separated. The only Jews in Heidelberg, Jacob and Sarah meet and fall in love, but Jacob's vow to avenge his brother threatens to destroy their chance for happiness. Fletcher, formerly NBC News' Tel Aviv bureau chief and author of The List (2011), has crafted a moving love story, a vivid portrait of a devastated and chaotic Germany immediately after the war's end, and a remarkably insightful look into the minds of two survivors of the Holocaust. Fletcher's style is spare and graceful, and it enhances the power of this small gem of a novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)