This isn't my kind of book. I had a difficult time maintaining interest in the beginning; in the middle, I spent my time dreading what was going to potentially happen (I was right!); and the end....well, it was ambiguous at best. It reminded me of No Country of Old Men, which I realize was a hugely popular book and movie, but I didn't care for it.
Sheldon Horowitz (aka "Donny") is an elderly man who moves to Norway to live with his granddaughter, Rhea, and her Norwegian husband, Lars. His only child, a son (father to Rhea) is dead (in the Vietnam War) and his wife has recently passed away. So Rhea & Lars are the only family members he has left. He suffers from dementia and no one seems to know who is really was in his past. Was he a sniper in the Korean War, or was he a clerk?
Sheldon witnesses the murder of a woman in Rhea & Lars' apartment. He is hiding in the closet with the woman's young son ("Paul"), who doesn't speak English or Norwegian or apparently German. The woman and her son live in the upstairs apartment and the man who murdered her is the father of the boy, who is a product of rape by the man in their own war-torn country. Basically, the man, Enver, wants his son and he plans to return with him to their own country.
Sheldon takes "Paul" and runs for his safety. Sheldon then pretty much becomes "Donny" again, the sniper he was in the Korean War. He "talks" to his dead buddies; he talks a lot about being Jewish; he makes a plan to save Paul, Rhea & Lars. There are two police officers, Sigrid and Petter, who are also trying to find and save the boy.
That's the premise of the book. The jacket cover states that this book is, "A luminous novel, a police thriller, and the funniest book about war crimes and dementia you are likely to read." Really?? I guess I have a completely different sense of humor then. And it's definitely NOT what I would call a "police thriller". I am rating it a tad higher than I want only because it was well-written.
Wendy's Rating: ***1/2
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