Advance look at a review of The Decision

Midwest Book Review is a well-respected publication often consulted by libraries, so I love getting a good review from them! Diane Donovan's review of The Decision won't come out until September, but she is graciously allowing me to quote from it as I see fit. So here are a few excerpts from it.

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The Decision: A Novel of Germany belongs in any fiction collection where readers are interested in the experiences of Jews living in Nazi Germany. The story starts and concludes with a bicycle incident that, in fact, really happened. The events that lead to that culmination have been fictionalized to embrace drama and conjecture—but, under Karen A. Wyle’s hand, what a journey it is!

. . . The juxtaposition of daily living and the rise of social and political changes that will ultimately affect [three] boys’ lives are nicely done, involving readers in realistic scenarios that are thoroughly engrossing as well as thought-provoking.

Despite the plethora of books on the market about Nazi Germany and Jewish treatment, few cement the lines of how prejudice, racism, and conflict evolve as does The Decision: A Novel of Germany.

 

. . . Wyle presents this story from the point of view of a Christian boy growing to manhood in Berlin during and after World War I. This focus on providing insights about these events from a young person’s viewpoint allows her to narrow the focus from the broader adult-oriented spectrum of attention usually afforded to novels of Nazi Germany to the impressions and growth of young people, both German and Jewish, raised under the cloak of rising struggles and national pride.

 

This is why The Decision both stands out from the crowd as an important examination of how attitudes are changed and friendships buffeted by clashing ideologies, and lends to classroom or reading group discussion about all kinds of subplots intrinsic to a complete understanding of the Jewish and German experience.

 

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Thank you, Ms. Donovan and Midwest Book Review!