ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Just before Christmas 1943, a Nazi officer is murdered at Auschwitz, his body found by a young prisoner who is a favourite of Mengele. The authorities call in Hugo Fischer of the Kriminalpolizei to investigate, as it is supected that a German worker has committed the crime and the commandant doesn't want to soil his hands by executing one of his own... Hugo is hiding a secret illness that would render him unfit in the eyes of the Reich, and he has been keeping his head down and enduring the regime without any hope of improvement. But keeping your head down can mean being deliberately blind to what is happening around you, and Hugo soon finds himself in a moral quagmire as he begins to comprehend what Auschwitz really is. A cast of flawed characters in intolerable situations, some who are trying to hold onto their humanity, and others who have let go of it... A very interesting and thoughtful novel. Lindy
A beautiful, moving detective story set in Auschwitz in the Christmas of 1943. A young Jewish prisoner... Auschwitz, 1943. It's snowing outside and Block 10 looks even bleaker than usual. Gioele Errera, a young Jewish boy imprisoned in the camp, finds the body of an SS officer.
ORIANA RAMUNNO (Melfi, 1980) lives in Berlin with her husband and three kids. Following a number of awarded crime novellas and short stories in various magazines, she pursued the writing of her debut thriller Ashes in the Snow inspired by the story of her grandfather, who was detained in the Flossenburg concentration camp. She dedicated this book to him, a book she describes as the last act of love in a long journey .
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Just before Christmas 1943, a Nazi officer is murdered at Auschwitz, his body found by a young prisoner who is a favourite of Mengele. The authorities call in Hugo Fischer of the Kriminalpolizei to investigate, as it is supected that a German worker has committed the crime and the commandant doesn't want to soil his hands by executing one of his own... Hugo is hiding a secret illness that would render him unfit in the eyes of the Reich, and he has been keeping his head down and enduring the regime without any hope of improvement. But keeping your head down can mean being deliberately blind to what is happening around you, and Hugo soon finds himself in a moral quagmire as he begins to comprehend what Auschwitz really is. A cast of flawed characters in intolerable situations, some who are trying to hold onto their humanity, and others who have let go of it... A very interesting and thoughtful novel. Lindy
A novel that moves ... beyond the crime genre to which it appears initially to belong The Times There is no doubting the power of the story and the righteous anger of its telling Shots magazine