The USA Today Bestseller
My brother’s tears left a delicate, clean line on his face. I stroked his cheek, whispered, it’s really you … in 1944, everything changes. The Nazis storm the homes of the Jewish villagers and inform them they have one hour. One hour before the train will take them to Auschwitz.
Six decades later, from the safety of their living rooms at home in Israel, the brothers finally break their silence to a friend who will never let their stories be forgotten.
Malka Adler’s extraordinary novel of a family separated by the Holocaust and their harrowing journey back to each other is based on interviews with the brothers she grew up with by the Sea of Galilee.
When they decided to tell their story, she was the only one they would talk to.
Narrated in a poetic style reminiscent of Margaret Atwood, this is a visceral yet essential read for those who have found strength, solace and above all, hope, in books like The Choice, The Librarian of Auschwitz, and The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Praise for The Brothers of Auschwitz
‘I sat down and read this within a few hours, my wife is now reading it and it is bringing tears to her eyes’ Amazon reviewer
‘The story is so incredible and the author writes so beautifully that it is impossible to stay indifferent. I gave the book to my mom and she called me after she finished crying and telling me how much she loved it’ Amazon reviewer
‘It is a book we all must read, read in order to know … It is harsh, enthralling, earth-shattering, rattling – but we must. And nothing less’ Aliza Ziegler, Editor-in-Chief at Proza Books, Yedioth Ahronoth Publishing House
‘This is a book we are not allowed not to read’ Leah Roditi, At Magazine
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I read a lot of WWII fiction but this book is told on such a personal level that it really touched me. I will admit to some tears as I was reading it but the overwhelming feeling after reading this book is the bravery and resilience of the people who survived the concentration camps – the people who saw humanity at its worst and then had to live with the memories of the people they lost and how they were treated for the rest of their lives.
This is a raw, heartbreaking novel about two brothers who survived the war and their life after the war as they tried to acclimate back into normalcy. It is full of pain and sorrow but there is also love and friendship and people who put themselves in danger to help the brothers. Even though it was difficult to read, I highly recommend it to people who enjoy reading books about this brutal time in history. This is a book that I won’t soon forget.
The Brothers of Auschwitz is such a special book that touched my heart, spirit and whole being. Written so beautifully in a stream-of-consciousness voice that will feel like you are hearing this story first hand as told by the brothers. Unlike other books in this time frame, this one was just a little different – the writing was clear, raw, so real and so visceral.
This is one of those books that we cannot afford not to read. Reading the horrors of what the Jewish people had to go through was so harrowing. Despite all the holocaust books I have read, there is always something more that I learn about, a detail I might have missed to learn about. Each story is a life that needs to be told. The brothers’ story is most especially well told – I could not stop reading this book until I knew the entire story.
At the end of the book is an Author’s note which I read first prior to reading the first page and it gave me the background I needed in how this story was written and the precious moments the author was able hear the brothers’ stories.
I highly recommend this book for an amazing historical fiction read that will bring tears to your eyes and take you into a very emotional read of a story needed to be told. Adler beautifully wrote this novel that moved and transformed me.
This book is about a sad subject, but one that people should be required to read. It’s an ugly part of our history that affected so many Jewish families and we should feel honored to read their stories. That’s how I feel every time I read a holocaust story.
I’ve read a lot of WWII era books, especially about the holocaust, and I always seem to learn something new or hear the story from a different perspective. This book takes place in 1944 and is about two brothers, Dov and Yitzhak, who were separated from their family and sent to Auschwitz. The stories they tell are heartbreaking, but they survived the horrors of Auschwitz and can now tell their story in this fictional book based on true events.
It is a book that I won’t soon forget and I recommend that everyone read the story of these two brothers. You will learn about the holocaust, the love of family and the will to survive even when those around you are dying.
Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers/One More Chapter for the ARC of this book in exchange for my review.
#NetGalley #TheBrothersofAuschwitz
I lost a wonderful Holocaust Survivor friend from Hungary,Magda Brown at age 93.My mother was also a survivor,and at the beginning of the Jewish New Year, i choose to read this book about 2 brother,to remember my lost loved ones. Its not a reading for a faint hearthed,but very inspirational and its a happy ending, triump over a harrowing escape from death.As Magda say,think before you hate!Shalom. Judit Wolfe
This book is nothing short of gut-wrenching. You are exposed to the true horrors experienced during the holocaust. But you also are given a view of the life the brothers had after the war. You are given a warning at the beginning of the book and you should not take it lightly. What sets this book apart is not only the atrocities experienced at Auschwitz, but how this affected them after the war was over. I don’t believe people realized how much the survivors of the camps continued to be affected. Indeed, every aspect of their livers were touched by their traumatic ordeals. Imagine have to change how you respond to everyday activities … not gulping down your food, not hiding food because you never know whether you’ll have any, washing your hands before meals, learning to say thank you, feeling comfortable going to a doctor or riding on a train or going to a BBQ. And then to be judged by people in Israel who could not understand how they “allowed” themselves to be led like “sheep to the slaughter.” This book will be one that will stay with you long after you’ve read the last word and slowly close it.
Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
This story hurts my heart. I often felt so powerless as I read about the victims of the Holocaust. This story made me feel angry at mans inhumanity towards man. We MUST remember the victims AND survivors of the Holocaust.
I was given this book to read for NetGalley and while I think the writing is wonderful I just had so much trouble finishing the book. I have never read a story that made me cry and broke my heart as this one has. As a mother of a son this is really hitting me hard to read of these two young boys going through the tragedy of Hitler and the Germans during the extermination of the Jews.
I know that there are a large group of students and scholars out there that say this incident never happened but they need to read this story and then talk about it with the thousands of survivors that were there at the time.
The horrific ways that people treated each other is horrendous and no person or group of persons should ever be exposed to this again. But, I know that will not be the case, history always repeats itself and although it may not happen in that country we are seeing a surge of differences and techniques used in America to change our constitution and way of life. We also are exterminating children at an alarming rate through abortion and the killing of different people by organizations.
I know that over the last years I have heard over and over how could the German people allow such a thing as the Holocaust happen but then I look at the world today and know that it is starting to happen in America.
People get complacent and brainwashed over things that are going on right in front of them and evil will always be around and only by the grace of GOD do we defeat it. The world right now is in turmoil and I don’t see that people are looking at this situation and saying stop the madness now.
Malka thank you for taking the time to write this story and bring what actually happened to the forefront. It must have been hard to write and taken so much out of you.
Let us all pray that this will never happen again.
I enjoyed the book but was very sad.
I have read a lot of WWII books both fiction and nonfiction about the holocaust and this was the most emotional and disturbing book so far. Dov and Yitzhak were 15 and 16 when the family was split up in 1944 and they were sent to several different concentration camps. This book describes the brutal and barbaric treatment that went on in the camps while they were there. After the war ended, they had to face the post-war aftermath, PTSD and relearning how to do simple things and how to function in society. This was a really good book but I found it a little confusing at times. Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC of this heart-wrenching book in exchange for an honest review.
hard to get into. goes back and forth in time. goes back and forth between the brothers’ narratives
Two brothers separated, reunited and broken. It was helpful to comprehend the lives after concentration camp, the PTSD, fear, distrust,etc. I liked that both brothers are interviewed as old men and seeing how the two different personalities developed and changed in later years.
I have never heard much about what the Jewish prisoners went through after they were released. It is so hard to imagine what life was like for them.
As always, any book on that horrible time is informative and depressing. Enjoyed this book.
I loved reading this book. Very interesting.
Book was very informative regarding the Germans savgage treatment of Jews. It spent too much time with the two characters in current times.
Enough is enough. I can’t read one more thing about the holocaust. This one is beautifully written, but I have had enough.
Especially poignant was the section of the book that dealt with the characters post-WWII and the ways in which their Holocaust experiences affected them for the rest of their lives.
One of the best books I’ve read dealing with the holocaust. A must read, haunting story following a families travails through that Horrific time in Hitler’s time.
A sad time in human history as told by two individuals who actually experienced it.
it still amazes me how humans can treat one another. Thanks for sharing.