Child of the Light: The Madagascar Manifesto

by Janet Berliner and George Guthridge

Book Overview

This remarkable book follows the lives of three friends, Solomon Freund, a Jew, Erich Wiesser, his Catholic neighbor and “brother in blood”, and Miriam Rathenau, whom both boys love, and who happens... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312063172
• ISBN13: 9780312063177
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 389 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The best of all recent books of this time.

When I first ran into this book I did not know what to expect. Often after the first thirty pages I put books back down, but this one, the Manifesto, is a taste of something beyond the average good read. It is not easy to read because you are forced to participate with your heart and be there with the characters, in the bad and the good.

Excellent, moving, distressing

I turned each page with reluctance, only because I knew the inevitable outcome of the "Jewish Question" and I felt as if I were a Jew in Germany as history unfolded. This book is a fabulously and terifyingly realistic glimpse into the birth of Nazi Germany from the perspective of one Jewish family and is a tale of their survival as, day by day, they struggle to live in a world that is trying to consume them

A story of life in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis.

This is the best book I have read in quite some time. It is, at its most basic level, a chronicle of three young people, two Jewish and one Catholic, growing up in the face of Nazi Germany. The story begins in 1918, immediately following the close of WWI and goes to 1938. Actual events and people are seamlessly woven into the lives of the characters giving the story both a historical and human feel. Imagine what you would think sitting in a cafe when Hitler himself decides to visit. Moving, real, tragic and poignant with a touch of the fantastic. An excellent and important read for anyone, especially if you wish to learn more about life under the Nazis from a more personal point of view

Dark and moody beginning that sets the stage for much more.

The beginning of a trilogy that sets dark magical realism against the backdrop of Hitler's Germany and the persecution of the Jews. The characters develop slowly, but you are soon caught up in their intertwined story. The introduction of magical realism to the tragedy of the century helps make significant points about what could have been done to prevent it