07/15/2024
National Jewish Book Award winner Balson (The Girl from Berlin) delivers a middling portrait of an altruistic American diplomat in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam and the woman who meets him decades later during her search for her long-lost sister. In 2002, crotchety Teddy Hartigan, who lives at an assisted-living facility, agrees to meet with freelance journalist Karyn Sachnoff, who was born into a Jewish family in Amsterdam shortly before the Nazi occupation, to help her find out what happened to her long-lost sister, Annie, when both girls were adopted by separate families. Teddy has one condition: that Karyn write his life story as a legacy for his grandchildren. After much buildup, Teddy recounts the central narrative. In 1938, Teddy is tapped to process visa and travel applications at the U.S. embassy in Amsterdam, where fears of a German invasion have led to a huge backlog. As Hitler continues his belligerence, Teddy is forced to improvise to protect his new love interest, a Jewish teacher named Sara, and to save as many Jews as he can. The dialogue rings false—Teddy says of Hitler, “He may have the world’s largest army, but I wouldn’t bet against the rest of the free world”—and most of the plot developments are predictable. It’s a superficial and hackneyed treatment of the period. Agent: Mark Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Sept.)