Hidden Among the Stars

July 9, 2018
Dobson (Catching the Wind) delivers another era-hopping tale that pairs a contemporary sleuth with a secretive plot to escape the Nazis at the end of WWII. In 1938 Austria, overrun by Hitler’s Anschluss, Max Dornbach, now in his mid-20s, yearns for Jewish Luzi Weiss even as his childhood friend, Annika Knopf, yearns for him. Max’s family, for whom Annika’s father works, owns the massive Schloss Schwansee estate on Lake Hallstatt, deep in the Alps and far from Vienna, where Max spends most of his time. Luzi, a gifted violinist living in Vienna, becomes frightened that she will be executed as the Nazi march nears the capital. After promising his Jewish friends he would hide their possessions, Max convinces Annika, a woman of deep faith, to help him, but without revealing he also plans to hide Luzi—a decision that could get them all killed. Dobson intertwines their story with that of Callie Randall, co-owner of Magic Balloon Bookshop in Mount Vernon, Ohio, who receives a copy of Bambi with an inscription to Annika Knopf dated 1932. Along with a doctor who believes Nazi treasure is buried in Lake Hallstatt, the two embark on a journey to uncover what happened to Annika, and on the way discover the full history of Max, Luzi, and the sprawling estate where they lived. This exciting tale will please fans of time-jump inspirational fiction.

Narrator Nancy Peterson beautifully brings this sweet historical novel to life. In 1938 in Austria, young Max Dornbach and Annika Knopf agree to hide their Jewish friends' treasures from marauding Nazis. Eighty years later, Callie Randall discovers an antique copy of BAMBI with an unusual inscription in the children's bookstore she owns with her sister. As Peterson narrates these parallel stories, her depictions of Annika and Callie portray the self-doubt and persistence experienced by each woman in her time. With the exception of Callie's aunt, who sounds too elderly, Peterson's characterizations blend smoothly into the narrative. She voices Annika with a soft accent and the determined Max with more gusto but not overt masculinity, capturing their timeless bond. N.M.C. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine