THE BOOK FAIR

The story of a woman’s unexpected journey and discovery of her family’s past.  The alternating stories move back and forth in time from 1938, Austria, under German occupation, to 1989, California, during the reunification of East and West Germany.  The novel, often melodramatic and repetitive, offers a love story during WW II with historical content.  For young adults.

Katie Nelson cares for her father who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.  To help combat the expense, Katie requests an appraisal of her father’s prized stamp collection.  Philatelist, Ben Grossman, while accessing the collection, discovers an unusual stamp from Austria in the 1930’s.  Katie and Ben begin to investigate the origins of the stamp.   Katie, though Jewish, has little tie to her Jewish roots.  The discovery leads Katie on an unexpected journey into her family’s past as she and Ben travel to Europe to unravel the tale.  A slow relationship develops between Katie who is on the verge of an unwanted divorce and Ben, who suffers over the loss of his wife.

In a specious vein, Cantor advances unnecessary sensationalism stating that Hohenschonhausen prison camp in the GDR was worse than Auschwitz death camp, in Poland.  Over one million people were murdered in Auschwitz.  Hohenschonhaus was a prison in the GDR, controlled by the East German Government and the Stasi, State Security Service.  Some 250,000 East Germans, political opponents of the government, were sent to the prison who were then processed to other prisons; an estimated that some 20,000 prisoners died in Hohenschonhausen, facts the author should know.