I bought the book cheap in a library sale.

I found it readable though I didn’t really know what was happening or who the various characters were. It was hard to make sense of the book.

The first part, at least, takes place in Belorussia or Bela Rus, though Australia was somehow involved.

Then we got to a section ostensibly written by Radislaw Kabbel, about the history of the Kabbelski family. There are also extracts from the journals of Stanislaw Kabbelski, Chief of Police. He may have been Radislaw’s father. What is described takes place in the early 1940s, that is, during the Second World War.

At one point I realized it dealt with a family with Fascist sympathies, This is the first book I’ve read portraying Fascists as normal people with normal feelings, who loved their children (though they hated and did away with Jews).

One of the main characters in this section is Oberführer Ganz, referred to as Onkel Willi, apparently, a pedophile, who is portrayed as a very kind and loving man.

The Germans described generally disposed of people, for instance Jews, by blowing them up. Onkel Willi is the character I most bonded with, by being such a wonderful man that everyone loved, though he too eventually has the same fate

The story is told from the viewpoint of Radislaw Kabbel as a little boy. He has a sister called Genia.

I found the book confused and confusing, since I prefer to be told directly who is who and to not have to work everything out myself, which is not my forte.

One of the main characters, Delaney, is a detective, who plays some sort of football; descriptions of the various games were boring and incomprehensible to me.

The latter part of the book apparently takes place in Australia.

We hear about Danielle and Galina, whoever they are, and whomever they are married to.

To sum up, for some strange reason I found the book eminently readable though exceedingly convoluted and thus incomprehensible. I can’t recommend it: read it at your peril.

However, I may well read Schindler’s Ark by the same author since I saw the film and greatly appreciated it.

My apologies if I have written anything that is incorrect. The book could well have done with a family tree, or explanation of who is who. ( )

In this book Second World War Eastern European Belarusan nationalism meets Australian league rugby and suburban angst.

The portrayal of the obscure self-justifying struggles of Belarusan nationalists, cooperating with the Nazis and the Soviets, trying to carve out their own nation, casually dismissing their participation in the slaughter of Jews (that's my family they are talking about.... my recent Jewish ancestors lived in Belarus and many were killed there by Nazis, probably aided by Belarusan nationals) is all very interesting.

We've all probably read about the war from the German perspective, but an Eastern European small nation perspective is different, and enlightening.

The interleaved second story of the book is set in Australia, where a minor league Australian rugby player, Terry Delaney, works out his marriage and an affair with the daughter of some Belarusan refugees, who have carried the madness of the war years into their modern sunny Australian reality.

The book is a mixed bag. I found it difficult, as I always do, to keep all the characters in my head. It is obvious that the Belarusan tale is going to eventually collide with the Australian tale, but the use of nicknames and lack of explicit stage directions made me unsure of how the modern day characters were related to the Second World War characters. In the end one can figure it out, but it takes some work, and perhaps even a second reading if you are slow about such things, as I am.

The author also wrote "Schindler's List" and knowing that tells you something about where his heart is. I don't know Keneally's biography, but surely he must have been in Europe in those years. He writes like a native. The Belarusan half of the novel feels intensely real, almost documentary, in the best sense, and the reader really learns something about a world and its attitudes. I did not find that the Australian suburban rugby-playing marriage-adulterating booze-drinking apocalypse -awaiting modern world was equally well-drawn, or enlightening.

So, yes, if you have a hankering to really get a new look at small time Eastern European nationalist politics under the Germans and Soviets, this book is actually quite interesting. I did not find the contrast with suburban Australia to add very much. The book was interesting, but not compelling. ( )

I mistakenly grabbed this off the library shelf thinking it was set in Kempsey (A River Town). It was not. However, Keneally explores in this novel, the effects of history, specifically the violent history of Belorussia during World War II, on our historical present, specifically suburban Sydney. As in his far more famous Schindler's List, no one is completely good or evil; there are admirable Nazis and detestable police men. ( )