Set in Romania during WW2, Night Lessons in Little Jerusalem is a deeply moving account of survival and hope inspired by an extraordinary true story.
Tholdi is sixteen years old, a music prodigy living with his family in Romania during WW2. His best friend Alex and family live in the same apartment block and they are inseparable. They have just celebrated Tholdi’s birthday and his first steps into manhood when the unthinkable happens. A ghetto is built to imprison the town’s Jews before herding them onto trains bound for the concentration camps of Transnistria.
Tholdi and his family wait for what they think will be an inevitable journey to the concentration camps. However, they are given a last-minute reprieve and return home where Tholdi must now work to support the family. Alex and his father have tragically been taken to one of the camps but Alex vows to escape and come home.
At the mill where his father once worked, Tholdi finds a job but when he discovers that the owners are collaborating with the Nazis, he is anxious to secure his job and the safety of his family. When Tholdi sees Radu one of the mill’s owners with Lyuba – a woman he knows to be a prostitute he realises this is a gift and devises a plan to use his knowledge of this secret affair as leverage. What he doesn’t realise is how strong his attachment to Lyuba will become.
This is a powerful debut novel, and while it is a work of fiction told by a fictional narrator, it is inspired by the memoirs of the author Rick Held’s late father Alex Held. Rick’s intention was to shine a light on a corner of the Holocaust that is often forgotten while weaving in some of the elements of this intimate and personal story.
Night Lessons in Little Jerusalem is beautifully written and meticulously researched. I highly recommend it to readers who enjoy historical fiction although the personal story makes it one that has broad appeal. It has been compared to The Tattooist of Auschwitz and All the Light We Cannot See so you can be sure you’ll be hearing a lot more about it.
While this is Australian author Rick Held’s debut novel, he has had a long career as a TV screen writer and editor, working on A Place to Call Home and Packed to the Rafters so it’s no surprise that this is an extremely polished debut. Set aside some time to linger over this book so you can really appreciate and immerse yourself in it.
‘The hero of this book was not a saint, nor even a tzadik – the nearest Jewish equivalent – but he was a hero. Someone who risked his own life to make a difference to the life of another. Were his motives selfless? No. He was after all flesh and blood. A man. And a very young one. But life is not black and white. Heroes are not without their flaws. This is his story.’
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