3 out of 4 stars
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Isaac and Flora Bloom are Jews living in Bremerhaven, Germany. Up until now, they have managed to avoid capture by the Nazis mainly through bribing a soft Police Street Captain. However, all too soon, the Captain is arrested, putting Isaac and Flora into the merciless hands of Polmer who replaces him. Polmer, who operates strictly by the rules, sends the Blooms’ to Ravensbruck for imprisonment.
Since Ravensbruck is a women’s labor camp, Isaac is smuggled out of Ravensbruck by Captain Wurtzmuller to serve as his personal prisoner. He cooks and cleans for the Captain as well as providing clerical work and cataloguing stolen gems and jewelry. All the while, Isaac searches for a chance to escape, rescue his wife, and flee Germany. Eventually Wurtzmuller’s arch enemy from the camp, an overseer by the name of Dorothy Boerner, comes to confront him over the death of her partner. Isaac seizes the opportunity to free himself and rescue Flora along with her bunkmate, Risa Resto. Will the trio be able to make it all the way to freedom?
The Lambs of War by Brian McManus is a novel set during World War II and The Holocaust; however, it is not so much focused on the savagery of the labor or death camps themselves as on the characters’ lives. While the story focuses mainly on Isaac and Flora, Mr. McManus introduces us to other interesting characters along the way. By doing this, we get a glimpse into the lives of not only victims of this horrible war but perpetrators and innocent bystanders as well. This helps to create a well rounded novel in which it is easy to become immersed.
Obviously, in dealing with this war and the atrocities that happened therein, there are mature themes throughout the book, but the author does a great job of handling them in a delicate way. I did not feel that the book was overly graphic or violent, but it still conveyed the seriousness of all that was happening. I appreciated that the novel starts right off in the thick of the events with very little preamble and continues to keep a steady pace throughout. Mr. McManus was able to throw in twists and turns that I did not see coming so as to keep me on my toes.
The only drawback to this novel was the editing. There were many mistakes throughout the entirety of the book, including quotations marks in the wrong spots, words left out, and words misspelled. The most grievous error to me, though, was the spelling of Captain Wurtzmuller’s name. In at least three different places in the novel, this character’s name is spelled wrong. This was very annoying to me and ended up distracting from my enjoyment of the novel as I thought the author really should be able to spell their own characters’ names correctly.
In spite of the editing, this was a well-written, enjoyable novel with great characters and an unpredictable, fast-moving plot. I rate The Lambs of War a 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys historical fiction, World War II, or even those who just want a good read.
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The Lambs of War
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It sounds to be about what I was hoping from it.
It was a good book. The author really did a good job in the treatment of the subject matter. It's worth reading.
