Holocaust Tours

by Julian Novitz

Taking time out in the UK, Daniel meets Anita. Getting involved with her means getting involved with her study of Holocaust memorials- and brings him face to face with his own Jewish heritage. Unfortunately it also brings him face to face with Josh, who shares Anita's interests more than Josh likes.

Returning to New Zealand and starting a new job, however, Daniel soon realises he can't escape the subject so easily- especially when his old friend Martin, the author of a controversial new book, makes an appearance.

Holocaust Tours is funny, fierce and unafraid:a first novel that questions what history means to us now.

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Holocaust with a New Zealand twist? I am so there! Young people, whose lives are all intertwined. So a bit too many characters, but they all have a purpose. One of them is writing her phd or whatever on holocaust sites around the world, which I find really interesting. She isn’t interested in the holocaust as an event, but the sites around the world that remembers the event. Never really thought of it that way, but I can totally see it, as I have been to my fair share of sites around the world. Her boyfriend leaves her and he comes home to NZ, because he is kind of done with Europe. An old friend of his writes a book that gets published about the facts of the crematoriums in the death camps and how it’s not really possible that all the people who died, died that way. He isn’t saying it didn’t happen, he just presents the facts on how it couldn’t. This, of course, gets people all worked up. Stuff happens, but nothing like life changing or anything. I liked this book, if only for the topics. None of the characters were too annoying or angsty, as they could have been in a book like this. I would recc it if only for the topics it covered, it’s so rare you find a book that covers Jewishness, the Holocaust and New Zealand in one place. Grade C+

[zespri · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I realized that Julian Novitz wrote this book as part of his candidature as a PhD student it made a lot more sense. I kept wondering just what the point of the book was as there seemed to be so many things going on and no real conclusion. Or maybe I missed something.

Different topics the book covers:

Anita - writing her PhD on Holocaust memorials

Daniel - working for a company which is developing a new online game

Martin - has just written a controversial book on the furnaces used in disposing of bodies in the holocaust

Josh - trying to find an identity as a half-Jew

Throw all that together - and you get Holocaust Tours!!