Reviews
"Anne Frank meets Orwell in this tragic, gripping tale of an orphan turned assassin in pre-World War II Paris. Based on the true story of the Jewish teen Hitler blamed for Kristallnachtt, it's a wild ride through the underside of Europe as the storm clouds of the Holocaust gather. Not to be missed!" --Terry Bisson, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author, Fire on the Mountain, "Anne Frank meets Orwell in this tragic, gripping tale of an orphan turned assassin in preWorld War II Paris. Based on the true story of the Jewish teen Hitler blamed for Kristallnachtt, it's a wild ride through the underside of Europe as the storm clouds of the Holocaust gather. Not to be missed!" -Terry Bisson, Hugo and Nebula Awardwinning author, Fire on the Mountain, "Matthews expertly portrays Parisian society in the 1930s, with its socio-economic, religious and ethnic hierarchies exacerbated by the stress of increased migration and war." --Wanda Wyporska, Historical Novels Review, "A tragic, gripping Orwellian tale of an orphan turned assassin in pre-World War II Paris. Based on the true story of the Jewish teen Hitler blamed for Kristallnacht, it's a wild ride through the underside of Europe as the storm clouds of the Holocaust gather. Not to be missed!" --Terry Bisson, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of Fire on the Mountain, "Joseph Matthews has created a powerful narrative of a tragically human scenario. It is at turns warm, comedic, compelling, and provocative." --Ron Jacobs, counterpunch.org, " Everyone Has Their Reasons enriches our understanding of what it means to live in a complex world where decisions are often made between choices that would have been unacceptable if there were other options." --Rabbi Rachel Esserman, thereportergroup.org
Synopsis
On November 7, 1938, a small, slight seventeen-year-old Polish-German Jew named Herschel Grynszpan entered the German embassy in Paris and shot dead a consular official. Three days later, in supposed response, Jews across Germany were beaten, imprisoned, and killed, their homes, shops, and synagogues smashed and burned--Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. Based on the historical record and told through his "letters" from German prisons, the novel begins in 1936, when fifteen-year-old Herschel flees Germany. Penniless and alone, he makes it to Paris where he lives hand-to-mouth, his shadow existence mixing him with the starving and the wealthy, with hustlers, radicals, and seamy sides of Paris nightlife. In 1938, the French state rejects refugee status for Herschel and orders him out of the country. With nowhere to go, and now sought by the police, he slips underground in immigrant east Paris. Soon after, the Nazis round up all Polish Jews in Germany--including Herschel's family--and dump them on the Poland border. Herschel's response is to shoot the German official, then wait calmly for the French police. June 1940, Herschel is still in prison awaiting trial when the Nazi army nears Paris. He is evacuated south to another jail but escapes into the countryside amid the chaos of millions of French fleeing the invasion. After an incredible month alone on the road, Herschel seeks protection at a prison in the far south of France. Two weeks later the French state hands him to the Gestapo. The Nazis plan a big show trial, inviting the world press to Berlin for the spectacle, to demonstrate through Herschel that Jews had provoked the war. Except that Herschel throws a last-minute wrench in the plans, bringing the Nazi propaganda machine to a grinding halt. Hitler himself postpones the trial and orders that no decision be made about Herschel's fate until the Führer personally gives an order--one way or another., At a time when the issues of identity, immigration, and class remain both universally important and enormously controversial, this book is an accessible and captivating tale of one boy's historically famous experience in the extraordinary setting of roiling pre-WWII Paris. On November 7, 1938, a small, slight 17-year-old Polish-German Jew named Herschel Grynszpan entered the German embassy in Paris and shot dead a consular official. Three days later, in supposed response, Jews across Germany were beaten, imprisoned, and killed, their homes, shops, and synagogues smashed and burned--Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. Based on the historical record and told through his "letters" from German prisons, this novel begins in 1936, when 15-year-old Herschel flees Germany, and continues through his show trial, in which the Nazis sought to demonstrate through his actions that Jews had provoked the war. But Herschel throws a last-minute wrench in the plans, bringing the Nazi propaganda machine to a grinding halt and provoking Hitler to postpone the trial and personally give an order regarding Herschel's fate.
