Monday, October 18, 2021

The Book of Uriel

 

In the fires of World War II, a child must save his people from darkness…

Ten-year-old Uriel has always been an outcast. Born mute in a Jewish village known for its choir, he escapes into old stories of his people, stories of angels and monsters. But when the fires of the Holocaust consume his village, he learns that the stories he writes in his golden notebook are terrifyingly real.

In the aftermath of the attack, Uriel is taken in by Uwe, a kind-hearted linguist forced to work for the commander of the local Nazi Police, the affably brutal Major Brandt. Uwe wants to keep Uriel safe, but Uriel can’t stay hidden. The angels of his tales have come to him with a dire message: Michael, guardian angel of the Jewish people, is missing. Without their angel, the Jewish people are doomed, and Michael’s angelic brethren cannot search for him in the lands corrupted by Nazi evil.

With the lives of millions at stake, Uriel must find Michael and free him from the clutches of the Angel of Death...even if that means putting Uwe in mortal danger.

Book source ~ Tour
Historical Fiction
26 January 2021
 373 Pages

My Rating ~ 4 Bites


Uwe Litten is a German linguist who can speak several languages, so the Nazis hire him to help interrogate Polish partisans they have captured in an attempt to find the rest of those in hiding.

Uriel is a 10-yr-old mute Jewish boy from a tiny town that has been wiped out by the Polish thus doing the job for the Nazis. Archangels have come in search of Michael who has been angelnapped and they have tasked Uriel with the job of finding him.

Uwe and Uriel prove that an individual can bring about a turning point in any situation, including war.


Holy shit. This book. This book will lift and inspire. It will also horrify. How could people do this shit to others? Hate is a powerful tool that needs to be removed from the toolbox. No one needs it.

Uwe is in an impossible situation, balancing his beliefs and morals with safety. Not just his safety. His family's. All while he does a job he doesn't want to do for the Nazis. In the end he does the only thing he can and it turns out to be plenty.

Uriel could be a bitter little boy, but he's not. He's full of hope and optimism and courage. Maybe that's why the Archangels picked him for the mission of finding Michael. Despite the scariness of confronting Samael, the Angel of Death, Uriel fulfills his duty to the best of his ability.

Is this Historical? Mythological? Fantasy? Paranormal? It's all of those things and more. This is the type of book that will stick with a person long after the last page is turned.


Elyse Hoffman strives to tell historical tales with new twists: she loves to meld WWII and Jewish history with fantasy, folklore, and the paranormal. She has written six works of Holocaust historical fiction: the five books of The Barracks of the Holocaust and The Book of Uriel. 



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