Very good. I was left with two themes related to facism. First, the disbelief of people at the time of the horror occuring; secondly, the small betrayals and subtle co-opting of non-Jews.

Excellent book. It was everything I was expecting. I found it hard to put down because of my curiousity about how this was going to end. The ending was a suprise I could not of aniticipated the final turn of events.

In 1938, Pavel and Anneliese Bauer are enjoying their affluent lifestyle in Czechoslovakia with their small son Pepik and his nanny Marta. But the Nazi shadow begins to fall on the Bauers’ lives. Britain and France, hoping to appease Hitler and secure ‘peace in our time’, agree not to oppose his invasion to ‘liberate’ German-speaking citizens of Czechoslovakia. Against this backdrop the Bauers, nominal Jews only, find that privilege and assimilation cannot insulate them from the invading Germans and, more frighteningly, friends and neighbours beginning to sympathize with the Nazi agenda. As petty resentments lead to small betrayals the Bauers are increasingly at risk. Will they leave everything behind and escape, or should they ride it out? Or is it already too late? Most heartrending of all, should they try to send small Pepik away in the Kindertransport evacuation? A suspenseful, and moving account of the tensions and painful decisions made in the leadup to war.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, because of the premise of it. Unfortunately, all the flashes between past and present wore away at my interest, and I just wanted it to stay in the past. The past story was a little weak, but I felt like the present-day part of the story really didn't add anything, and was a bit too overdone. Of course, once I got to the end, and realized why these flashes happened, it felt like I could have tossed away the whole book and been better for it. Greatly disappointing. I hope this seeming trend of historical fiction that places more emphasis on modern-day characters looking back on history, as with books like "Sarah's Key" (which was really poor), will go away soon.

Very good read, but was missing something for me...longlisted for the 2011 Booker Prize.

2nd time Canadian novelist Alison Pick situates the story of 20-something nanny, Marta and her wealthy Jewish employers in 1939, in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. A separate story line – that of a twenty first century professor clinically examining this same time & place – runs alongside until the final chapters. While the modern piece intrigues and informs, it is Marta’s tale that lifts the novel, and makes it extraordinary. The reader is pulled right into daily urban European life, circa 1939. While there are pockets of new and unsettling brutality, Marta’s world still hums warmly along as the novel opens. Her charge, 6 year old Pepik Bauer, adores her. His parents, Pavel and Anneliese Bauer lead civilized, cultured lives and provide Marta a comfortable, loving home. It is these characters – so fully and beautifully rendered by Ms. Pick – that keep one reading. When these characters speak, act, think – the changes wrought by human conflict are distilled. This is not World War II on a big map but rather, it is the same war on a more imaginable scale. The heart rending decisions and mounting pressures on the Bauer household because of what they see in their own neighborhood and experience with their own community are no less revealing than a front line soldier’s. Indeed, in some ways they are more compelling -- life was fine, lovely, and then, incrementally it creeps towards slaughter. At one point, crowds gathering on their streets start seeming menacing rather than celebratory, and Marta thinks, “The day was losing shape, like a worn-out undergarment. Time coming loose, a thread at the cuff. Marta twirled a strand around her forefinger. Indeed, all of the continent was coming unraveled; the thoughts of this one small individual allow a crystal clear image of life there, at that moment.

Toronto poet and novelist Alison Pick dissects the tragedy of Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 in a multilayered narrative, a tale of betrayals large and small, that focuses on the fate of the Bauer family, secular Czech Jews. Nancy Wigston, Globe & Mail Dec 12 2010.