Two Brothers by Ben Elton
Two Brothers follows the story of a Berlin family from 1920 through to 2006 . When Frieda gives birth to twins and one dies, she adopts another son . That the child is German is unimportant to this Jewish mother, and the first quarter of the book is filled with lovely character-establishing stories.
Two Brothers combines outstanding research with several levels of human pain . The insanity of the regime is looked at in the Nazi schooling, the petty laws and in two key events : The Night of the Long Knives and The Night of Broken Glass.
In the 60-odd years since the Holocaust, the Nazi regime has become so simplified that sometimes we need a book that explains the slow, fine grinding away of Jewish lives .
Elton does not trivialise violence by keeping it at the epi -centre , but keeps it menacingly in the background.
This is an edited version of a review that first appeared on Hinis' blog, http://zoehinis.com. 'Two Brothers', Random House, R226