this is a wild ride through several different aspects of the holocaust, post-holocaust and modern life. I really enjoyed the different strains Kaiser brings together as well as his engaging and thoughtful writing. i felt like maybe the story of the building was a little thin so he needed to pad it out with these additional stories- Abraham Kaiser, the treasure hunters- but those are *great* stories and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I don't know if he's going to write anything else but I would read it. ( )

The journey of a grandson named after a grandfather he never knew tries to continue the fight to reclaim his family property taken from them when they were forced to leave and sent to the concentration camps. A journey hoping to connect to a grandfather who died before he was born. More questions than answers along the way. Meeting of Treasure hunters, a remnant of the war torn country seekers of the Nazi Treasure hidden in the tunnels of the country side - Although the ending is not written for the journey sought - the writer did find the story and family of this grandfather's brother, a survivor whose journal has given clues to the Nazi treasure hunters quests. I hope a sequel is soon to come! ( )

A little light and disappointing that it was done without a resolution

Great writing, more interesting than i thought. Just who owns what as families suffer through war and displacement. Can one possibly understand histories, motivations, revelations and the entangled mess we combine to be as peoples of the world. ( )

After World War II many survivors emigrated to the United States and started new lives. They never talked about their history or the loss of family members. Menachem never knew his grandfather, who died before he was born and he could find out very little about him from his father because stories of the war weren't shared in their household. When Menachem is in Europe, he decides to go to Poland to find out where his grandfather grew up. His visit turns into a quest to get reparations for the apartment building that his grandfather had owned. Along the way, he learns more about his grandfather's life and even spends some time with Nazi treasure hunters. The trip that he took into one of the Nazi tunnels, was difficult to read especially by someone as claustrophobic as I am. His writing was very introspective and he didn't just talk about the adventure but also the ramifications of the Nazi regime and how they changed the lives of so many people. ( )