the riotous aftermath. Santee’s quest barely begins before she escapes an attempted assault at the Négus, a popping nightclub, which then burns to the ground before her eyes. After a rambling ride with a taxi cab driver, Santee meets a young man, whom she incorrectly calls Ronaldo Milanac when she mistakes his tattoo of the famous footballer’s name for his own. Santee continues her search, and de Souza’s incessantly swift prose translates the racial and religious kaleidoscope of the Mauritian experience into a deceptively compact novel. Also noteworthy are the faithful incorporation of Francophone Creole and moments of unexpected wonderment, as when rambunctious monkeys interrupt Santee and Ronaldo’s Bollywood dance number. Long overlooked in the United States, de Souza and his compatriots deserve to be celebrated stateside. An electrifying portrait of a tiny island nation on fire.
THE LIVING AND THE LOST
Feldman, Ellen St. Martin’s Griffin (336 pp.) $17.99 paper | Sep. 7, 2021 978-1-2507-8082-9
After finding refuge from the Nazis in America, a young Jewish woman returns to her native Berlin in 1945, as the Allied occupation begins. As we learn from flashbacks, Millie Mosbach and her younger brother, David, fled Germany as teenagers in 1938, sponsored by a generous American couple. Now Millie, a graduate of Bryn Mawr, and David, an American military officer and combat vet, have signed up for official duties in their homeland—Millie as part of a de-Nazification program, David to help with displaced persons. Millie is in turmoil, though, holding out hope that their missing parents and younger sister may still be alive—and hiding what she sees as a shameful secret about her escape. This book feels different from other historical novels about the Holocaust, partly because of its postwar Berlin setting. Author Feldman offers nuance, even irony here. While not giving any slack to the evildoers, she reminds us that some ordinary Germans also suffered under the Third Reich—Millie meets one woman whose son was murdered by the Nazis because they thought he was “mentally infirm.” The author also reminds us that antisemitism was rife in the U.S. when this story takes place. (Gentlemen’s Agreement, Laura Z. Hobson’s novel about discrimination against American Jews, was published in 1947.) Feldman’s writing is mostly workmanlike, though her description of the shattered Berlin—a “bombed out Wild West”—is striking. The last section of the book disappoints. It turns out that Maj. Harry Sutton—Millie’s boss and love interest—has been harboring a secret too much like Millie’s. Millie also falls and bloodies herself—literally—once too often, with Harry always rescuing her. In general, loose ends get tied up too neatly. An often thoughtful and affecting page-turner, some clumsy plotting aside.
NEVER
Follett, Ken Viking (816 pp.) $29.99 | Nov. 9, 2021 978-0-59-330001-5 A complex, scary thriller that feels too plausible for comfort. Republican President Pauline Green is trying to steer the United States through a dangerous world. China spends billions in Africa to extend its global influence, while North African countries like Chad are beset by criminals and terrorists. But that’s secondary to the real problem: Rebels in North Korea try to overthrow the Communist dynasty and reunite the North and South, which scares 12
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1 august 2021
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fiction
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kirkus.com
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