Whitbread First Novel Award–winner Lebrecht (for The Song of Names
) stiffly examines the psychological and moral dilemmas of living in a post-Holocaust world. When Paul Miller stumbles out of a work camp in an unnamed European country, he is saved by Alice, who hides him in the attic of her family inn. He eventually takes up residence in the town and marries Alice. Paul is continually torn between his love for his wife and son, and the guilt he feels living in a place where he endured so much torment. When he's elected mayor, Paul creates plans to modernize the idyllic mountain town and bury his past, but then the former prison commandant returns, and Paul is conflicted: take revenge or move on with his life? This novel's exploration of the shades of good and evil is hobbled, however, by characters who feel shaped by what they were created to represent as opposed to the humanity that might exist in them. The overly allegorical feel keeps the reader at too much of a distance and flattens what could be compelling imagery and characters into symbols. (July)
