As a novel, it's not bad reading, but as a novel about the Holocaust, it is troubling. Herman Rosenblat fabricated much of the story that forms the spine of this novel. His memoir was canceled just as it was about to be published, and Holt saw an opportunity to publish a fictionalized version of what had been a highly anticipated memoir. For these reasons, I feel uncomfortable with this book. ( )

Once upon a time, holocaust survivor Herman Rosenblat wrote a love story. Boy meets girl. Boy is dying in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. Girl throws Boy apples over the concentration camp fence. Boy and Girl fall in love. You know, the usual. It was a beautiful story, and one that needed to be told.

It was so beautiful that one day, Oprah, being Oprah, declared it "the greatest love story ever told". She invited Rosenblat onto her show, and he spellbound the audience with tales of his life and claimed that he had written this story from his own experience.

Now, there was just one problem in the magical kingdom of TV land - the story wasn't true. Oprah went on the war path. And lots of Americans, having no sense of irony, got very upset about the whole thing.

The fact that a harrowing tale of life in the concentration camps had basis in truth, despite the fictional love story, was lost on people. The possibility that a person who, having just survived the holocaust, might have very good reasons for wanting to pretty things up a bit, didn't occur to them. And as for the idea that people have artistic freedom and the right to make of their own experiences whatever they will - well, that would be like saying that Oprah was wrong!

Rosenblat's fiction is a lie that tells the truth. And whilst I can well understand the desire to uncover the truth behind the story, Holt's decision to then write this 'true account' as a novel is baffling. 'The Apple'...bites.

What you end up with is a badly written 'true' work of fiction, about a beautifully written 'fictional' truth. What would you prefer - an ugly truth or a beautiful lie? Read them both. Make up your own mind. ( )

I just read the previous reviewers comments on this book, and I must add my own story. I too was sent this book as part of the early reviewers program back in 2009. I kept thinking that I must read that book, but another story always pressed its way ahead in the que. I searched for it a few times, but could not find it. Just recently I was tidying some books in my sons room, and I found it in amongst the kids books! I asked my eldest son (7) why it was there, and he said "Mummy, you know Joel (his younger brother that shares the room with him) loves apples!"

Anyway, I am a sucker for a Holocaust survivor story. I know you can't really say you enjoy them, but part of something being a good read is if it makes you think, moves your emotions etc. And how anyone survived those atrocities cannot fail to do that. The fact that Herman and his brothers survived through the war is a testimony to their strength. When as an old man, Herman finally told his story, the fullness that his life had become with his beloved wife and family, led him to include a little bit of fiction, that shone a light of hope into the bleakness that was his existence during the war. That bit of fiction became the focus of the story for many, and when it was shown to be false, people discounted his whole story as lies. Harsh. This book includes some of Herman's thoughts on how he and his family and the media handled the controversy. The media often looks at things in a black and white manner. And what the media says is absorbed by so many people. They nearly always have an angle to present. I for one am glad that Herman told his story, as it is a story that should not be forgotten. ( )

A curious thing happened on my way to reading and reviewing this novel "exposing" a memoir hoax--I packed the book in my baggage for a family trip and then could not find it when I returned home. I checked the four local libraries I have access to for over a year trying to find a copy to read, but not one of them (even the ones with Holocaust sections and include fiction). Finally, almost a year later, I found the book and read it.

Thus, I missed most of the reviews from other Early Reviewers, but I also missed the Oprah controversy about Herman's memoirs. I found Holt's "expose" by novel of a non-published "memoir" ironic in its set-up and still compelling in the attempt to lay out Herman's story and reasoning for including his wife's, Roma, recollection of tossing an apple to a boy she presumed was Jewish when she herself was hiding as a Christian.

Herman connected with Roma's story and felt that she had tossed the apple to him as an angel sent by his mother to keep him alive. Over the years, it became his rationale for finding Roma and for finding life after living through the Holocaust. He blended facts from two memories into one and it became real to him. Quite like many of us do in our everyday lives--who does want to tell the absolute and complete truth about some events? No one I know, including me.

The most amazing "fact" to me is that Herman, and three of his brothers, survived purges, ghettos, and camp after camp after camp, to still be alive and together at war's end. Reuniting with their sister, five siblings made it to a life after the horrors of WWII.

Holt tells the story in a semi-dream style which can be annoying and her writing is not the best around, but she manages to include all the pertinent information and then begs the question of the reader, "understand" the story that Herman was trying to tell. The apple is literally the core of Herman's existence after the war, the picture for him of how he survived and how he found his life's love in Roma.

If an adroit editor or reader had simply asked Herman to say the Roma told him a story that he took to heart, there would have been no controversy. It would have been the "love story of the ages" that Oprah talked about, and the book would have been published.

Herman Rosenblatt is a stiff-necked old man, who cannot understand why others cannot accept his truths--and his version of the apple story. This is a book simply written, tailored more to a young adult audience, and in that capacity, it offers an opportunity to learn about how facts can twist themselves into our memories and change them for our benefit. ( )

I agree with the other reviewers who found this book to be too simplistic for the complicated material with which it was dealing. I felt like I couldn't believe Herman's story despite, or maybe even because of, the way the author was so sympathetic to him. I found several elements hard to believe and it seemed like certain characters were just inserted into the plot to spout information about aspects of the shoah.
I did find parts of the narrative compelling but if you want to read a good shoah memoir pick up "Night" by Elie Wiesel or "Survival in Auschwitz" by Primo Levi. ( )