Author:David Albahari,Ellen Elias-Bursac
Believing they were being taken to a better camp, Belgrade's Jews would climb into the truck with a sense of relief. Mainly women, children and the elderly, they expected a long and uncomfortable trip but, after crossing the border, their journey would come to an abrupt end. Here the drivers would get out and attach a hose from the exhaust to the back of the truck-Over the course of a few months in 1942 the Nazis systematically exterminated the majority of Serbia's Jews using carbon monoxide and specially designed trucks. The only information the narrator of this bleakly comic novel can find about the summer when his relatives disappeared is the names of the truck drivers: G-tz and Meyer. During his research he becomes fascinated by the unknowable characters and daily lives of these men. But his imagination proves a dangerous force, and his obsession with the past threatens to overwhelm him.
This is a heartbreaking book, sardonic and brutal, written at unrelenting pace with great compassion and wild humour.
—— The IndependentA triumph. A testament to the power of the imagination
—— Daily TelegraphIndisputably an exceptional novel
—— Literary ReviewA beautiful, soul-searching and genuinely tragi-comic novel
—— Daily TelegraphIf you want to become familiar with the lanista and the rudus, to know your scutum from your licium, then Kane's your man ... plenty of action
—— IndependentSpartacus has returned home to Thrace to find a new king has usurped his throne. He is seized and then sold to a Roman slave trader but he is a fighter and is destined for greater things.
Historically little is known about the real Spartacus but in the hands of Ben Kane his legend has been crafted into two fantastic novels and this is the first.
A breathless romp…a real feel for the grit and the mad excitement of fighting and a fascination with a culture, Rome, that was obsessed with blood-lust.
—— History TodayFrom the first tingle-making line...I was mesmerised by Uhlman’s heart-breaking story
—— Daily MailAn exquisite novella such as Fred Uhlman's Reunion...is clearly worth much more than its weight or cover price and certainly more than the latest prize-winning bit of puff
—— GuardianMelancholy and elegiac with a very effective final twist of the plot
—— The TimesThe interesting question now is what is the “greatest book we’ve never heard of” (Stoner’s tag)? Fred Uhlman’s Reunion (1971), to be published in July, might follow in Stoner’s footsteps... Watch this space
—— IndependentA minor masterpiece. Uhlman succeeds in lending his narrative a musical quality which is both haunting and lyrical
—— Arthur KoestlerA profound meditation upon the nature of friendship. The first line alone is enough to send a tingle up your spine: 'He came into my life in February 1932 and never left it again'
—— GuardianA book that changed me? Reunion by Fred Uhlman. I read it 20 years ago. It changed my view on Judaism
—— Jeffrey ArcherOriginally published in 1971, apparently, Reunion passed me by then but reading it now it certainly packs a punch
—— Guy Pringle , NudgeA little masterpiece
—— Val Hennessy , Daily MailI loved the mood of the book — it’s nostalgic and wistful without being sentimental — and it’s written in a perfectly matter-of-fact way but is done so eloquently the sentences feel as if they’ve been spun from silk. It’s a quick read, too, but it’s the kind of story that stays with you
—— Reading MattersDevastating
—— Fiona Wilson , The TimesNever hits a false note
—— i (The paper for today)It’s a good novel, a short novel, quickly and easily read, but it’s a novel that demonstrates Uhlman’s great skill because when you arrive at the last sentence (the very last sentence of the novel), you see you’ve actually missed a different arc entirely. It is this twist in the tail that has you both retreating back through the book but also (curse them) recommending it to others as well
—— Book MunchExtraordinary…one of literature’s most shattering final sentences
—— New York TimesUhlman writes with a painter’s eye for the significant detail, and with the precision of someone who has learned a second language in adulthood. Every word is exactly what it must, and could only, be. Every sentence is characterized by delicacy, concision, and finesse
—— Church TimesShimmers above so much of the new fiction… Brings a lump to the throat in its final line
—— Arifa Akbar , IndependentA daring miracle of narrative simplicity, its end comes at you like a torch in a long tunnel.
—— Rachel Cooke , ObserverAs perfect as it is powerful
—— Irish TimesReunion resembles that other small masterpiece, Death in Venice, by Uhlman’s compatriot Thomas Mann. Its setting may be drastically different but, in a classic, what prevails is strength of spirit over the will to power.
—— Amanda Hopkinson , Jewish Chronicle[A] touching novel.
—— David Nicholls , Observer, Book of the YearA beautiful story
—— Jeffrey Archer , Daily Express