1941 Amsterdam is not a very safe place to be. You need not be a Jew to feel unsafe. Professor Held is a quiet man. He lost his wife years ago and since then leads a solitary life, attending to his university job with care and diligence but not with any great passion.
When he unexpectedly offers shelter to Michael a Jew on the run, it is completely out of character and something he never envisaged. When this hiding of the fugitive continues for years, it becomes a game of deadly hide and seek with the omnipresent Nazis using neighbours, relations and friends to rout out Jew and Resistance sympathizers.
When his own niece, his only relative becomes intimately involved with a Nazi officer and turns informant he knows he is risking it all as everything and the network can be blown sky high. Michael needs to get back to Elke his Dutch partner and to keep Michael alive Josef Held has to use all his powers of serenity and good sense to keep matters on an even keel.
Another excellent story on this turbulent part of all our lives set in Amsterdam highlighting unheard of heroes.
Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Bookouture.
Looks like a thought-provoking read.
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