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Testament
Of everyone in her complicated family, Eva was always closest to her grandfather. She is making a film about his life. She is with him when he dies.
It is only when she finds the letter from the Jewish Museum in Berlin, hidden in his painting studio, that she realises how many secrets he kept.
As she uncovers everything he endured in the Holocaust – and what it took to learn to live again – Eva is confronted by the lies that haunt her family, and a truth that changes her own identity.
Kim Sherwood’s hope-filled first novel is a powerful portrait of survival echoing through the generations; a testament of love, legacy, and all the important questions we leave unasked.
It is only when she finds the letter from the Jewish Museum in Berlin, hidden in his painting studio, that she realises how many secrets he kept.
As she uncovers everything he endured in the Holocaust – and what it took to learn to live again – Eva is confronted by the lies that haunt her family, and a truth that changes her own identity.
Kim Sherwood’s hope-filled first novel is a powerful portrait of survival echoing through the generations; a testament of love, legacy, and all the important questions we leave unasked.
448 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 12, 2018
34 people are currently reading
491 people want to read
About the author
Kim Sherwood
7 books148 followersKim Sherwood is an author and creative writing lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, where she lives in the city. Kim Sherwood’s first novel, Testament (2018), won the Bath Novel Award and Harper’s Bazaar Big Book Award. It was longlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize and shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Pick. In 2019, she was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Her second book, Double or Nothing (2022), is the first in a trilogy commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate to expand the world of James Bond. Her next novel, A Wild & True Relation, was described by Hilary Mantel as “a rarity – a novel as remarkable for the vigour of the storytelling as for its literary ambition. Kim Sherwood is a writer of capacity, potency and sophistication.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
May 30, 2018
László told him he wouldn’t be free until he gave voice to his suffering. Silk shook his head. ‘Who says I’m suffering? I have a right to forget. A right to build myself a new life, a right to be happy. Your insistence that I talk, these calls to remember, they are a threat to my being: the man I am now, the man I have been since 1945.’
There’s an important story here, a continuation of the documentation of the Holocaust, this time focused on the Jews of Hungary. Sherwood frames her tale not just as a story of the past but by connections with our present, not least the rise of the alt-right in all its manifestations.
Despite all this good stuff, I’m sad to say that I struggled with this as a novel, and as a piece of creative writing: the prose frequently feels overblown and self-consciously try-hard, and the info-dumps weigh the whole thing down – this is undoubtedly well-researched as we can tell from the afterword, but the history isn’t quite woven in as seamlessly as it could be.
I’m sorry that this didn’t work better for me: I liked the perspective of a Holocaust survivor who wants to write out his past, but too much else felt formulaic for novels of this kind – the curator of a museum who triggers the uncovering of long-held family secrets and lies, the two brothers and a love triangle.
This has the feel of a passionate personal project about it – I wish I could say that I loved it, but in reality I didn’t.
July 22, 2018
TESTAMENT opens with death of Joseph Silk, a renowned artist and holocaust survivor, and most beloved grandfather to Eva. Reeling from her loss, Eva begins to uncover the life her grandfather lived before she was born, and in doing so uncovers old secrets that may explain her own muddled life. Shifting between Eva’s present and Silk’s past as a teenager struggling through WW2, this is a novel about limitless love, unshakable regret and to what extent we have control over the sort of person we become. The writing is beautiful, vivid and intimate. It's both heartbreaking and optimistic. I wept several times - for Silk, for Eva and for our current world. One of the best debuts I have ever read.
Read
November 25, 2018Although the storyline had potential and I liked the premise I struggled with the style of writing and decided not to continue.
October 27, 2022
Review to follow.
November 21, 2019
Eva Butler is a 24-year-old MA student specializing in documentary filmmaking. She is a live-in carer for her grandfather, the painter Joseph Silk (real name: József Zyyad), in his Fitzroy Park home. When Silk dies early on in the book, she realizes that she knows next to nothing about his past in Hungary. Learning that he wrote a testament about his Second World War experiences for the Jewish Museum in Berlin, she goes at once to read it and is distressed at what she finds. With the help of Felix, the museum’s curator, who did his PhD on Silk’s work, she travels to Budapest to track down the truth about her family.
Sherwood alternates between Eva’s quest and a recreation of József’s time in wartorn Europe. Cleverly, she renders the past sections more immediate by writing them in the present tense, whereas Eva’s first-person narrative is in the past tense. Although József escaped the worst of the Holocaust by being sentenced to forced labor instead of going to a concentration camp, his brother László and their friend Zuzka were in Theresienstadt, so readers get a more complete picture of the Jewish experience at the time. All three wind up in the Lake District after the war, rebuilding their lives and making decisions that will affect future generations.
It’s almost impossible to write anything new about the Holocaust these days, and overfamiliarity was certainly a roadblock for me here. I was especially reminded of Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge, what with its focus on the Hungarian Jewish experience. However, I did appreciate the way Sherwood draws on her family history – her grandmother is a Hungarian Holocaust survivor – to consider how trauma still affects the second and third generation. This certainly doesn’t feel like a debut novel. It’s highly readable, and the emotional power of the story cannot be denied. The Young Writer of the Year Award is great for highlighting books that risk being overlooked: in a year dominated by The Testaments, poor Testament was otherwise likely to sink without notice.
Note: “Testament” is also the title of the poem written by Sherwood’s great-grandfather that she recited at her grandfather’s funeral – just as Eva does in the novel. It opens this Telegraph essay (paywalled, but reprinted in the paperback of Testament) that Sherwood wrote about her family history.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Sherwood alternates between Eva’s quest and a recreation of József’s time in wartorn Europe. Cleverly, she renders the past sections more immediate by writing them in the present tense, whereas Eva’s first-person narrative is in the past tense. Although József escaped the worst of the Holocaust by being sentenced to forced labor instead of going to a concentration camp, his brother László and their friend Zuzka were in Theresienstadt, so readers get a more complete picture of the Jewish experience at the time. All three wind up in the Lake District after the war, rebuilding their lives and making decisions that will affect future generations.
It’s almost impossible to write anything new about the Holocaust these days, and overfamiliarity was certainly a roadblock for me here. I was especially reminded of Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge, what with its focus on the Hungarian Jewish experience. However, I did appreciate the way Sherwood draws on her family history – her grandmother is a Hungarian Holocaust survivor – to consider how trauma still affects the second and third generation. This certainly doesn’t feel like a debut novel. It’s highly readable, and the emotional power of the story cannot be denied. The Young Writer of the Year Award is great for highlighting books that risk being overlooked: in a year dominated by The Testaments, poor Testament was otherwise likely to sink without notice.
Note: “Testament” is also the title of the poem written by Sherwood’s great-grandfather that she recited at her grandfather’s funeral – just as Eva does in the novel. It opens this Telegraph essay (paywalled, but reprinted in the paperback of Testament) that Sherwood wrote about her family history.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
July 16, 2018
This is an extremely ambitious debut novel. Its scope is huge and I think the author has accomplished this through writing with skill, intelligence and compassion.
For my full review please visit my blog at: https://leftontheshelfbookblog.blogsp...
For my full review please visit my blog at: https://leftontheshelfbookblog.blogsp...
November 29, 2019
I'm reviewing this book as part of shadow judging the The Sunday Times / University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award. I am part of the Shadow Panel which will make its own choice from the shortlist for the award.
The four shortlisted books are Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler (Fleet/ Little, Brown), Testament by Kim Sherwood (riverrun), The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus (Penned in the Margins) and salt slow by Julia Armfield (Picador).
About the Author
Kim Sherwood was born in Camden in 1989 and lives in Bath. She studied Creative Writing at UEA and is now Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England. Her pieces have appeared in Mslexia, Lighthouse, and Going Down Swinging. Kim began researching and writing Testament, her first novel, after her grandfather, the actor George Baker, passed away and her grandmother began to talk about her experiences as a Holocaust Survivor for the first time. It won the 2016 Bath Novel Award, was longlisted for the 2019 Desmond Elliot Prize and shortlisted for the 2019 Author’s Club Best First Novel Award.
About the Book
'The letter was in the Blue Room - her grandfather’s painting studio, where Eva spent the happier days of her childhood. After his death, she is the one responsible for his legacy - a legacy threatened by the letter she finds. It is from the Jewish Museum in Berlin. They have found the testimony her grandfather gave after surviving the labour camps in Austria. And, since he was one of Britain’s greatest twentieth century artists, they want to exhibit it. But Joseph Silk - leaving behind József Zyyad - remade himself long ago. As Eva begins to uncover the truth, she understands the trauma, and the lies, that have haunted her family. She will unravel what happened to József and his brother, who came to England as refugees. One never spoke of his past - the other couldn’t let it go. Their story - and that of the woman they both loved - is in her hands. Revealing it would change her grandfather’s hard- won identity. But it could also change the tide of history. This testament can lend words to wordless grief, and teach her how to live."
My review
Testament is one of those books which begins with a story that seems small, personal and intimate and then, almost without you realising, blossoms, expands and acquires wider resonance, deeper relevance and added meaning. While still remaining, in a sense, small, personal and intimate.
Eva is devoted to her elderly grandfather, artist Joseph Silk (Jószef Zyyad to some), who, as a young man, survived the horrors of wartime Hungary. As a Jew, he was enslaved, tortured, marched from camp to camp in the dying days of the war and lost his parents and sister, afterwards making a life for himself in England. Silk's (as he is generally referred to) choice was then to turn his back on the past, on the family he lost, the country that is no longer his own, the house he grew up in, everything from before. he certainly never wanted to tale part in reunions, contribute his testimony to museums, or to explore what was lost.
Granddaughter Eva, close to Silk and feeling herself rejected by her father John, is keen to protect Silk's legacy and reputation but most of all perhaps, his privacy. Approached by curators, journalists and art historians who want something of this eminent figure, this eminent survivor, she asks herself what Silk would want - and then closes down, even as she's dealing with the sale of his house and studio and the need to decide what should happen to everything, to decide how Silk should be marked in the world (even the text for a gravestone is impossible to settle). Inevitably that can't, in the end, hold, and Eva embarks reluctantly on a search for the truth, her easy trust in and love for Silk eroded by the discovery that he told her lies, lies, lies.
This is then a story about survival. While we are shown episodes from the Holocaust - those affecting Jószef, his brother László, and a young woman Zuzka - and these are very grim, the story is necessarily selective there (I don't think what we told is by any means the worst that happened) and really focusses, I think, on what happened after, when the three young survivors are brought to England, to the Lake District of all places. We see, slowly, the dilemma they face.
The need for safety and security. The alienness of this damp land, a country of grey streets and chilly attics. The ambivalence of the English who haven't suffered as Jószef, László and Zuzka have but who are the victors, the owners, in their own country, of the war, as it were. (And among whom there is still prejudice - anti Jewish, anti foreigner).
But also, rejection by a Hungary that joined in the Nazi purges and doesn't want them now, offers nothing, no family, no restored home, no life. (In the modern parts of this book, that's paralleled by the scary resurge in Hungary of the far Right with its attempts to airbrush history).
The three survivors find, in the end, different responses to this dilemma. I'm not going to say any more about what they are because Eva's discovery of all this is an important part of the story, for her and for her father - but none of them come without cost. And we see that while John. and Eva may be second and third generation survivors, they are still survivors and the ripples of what happened to a father and a grandfather spread out to affect subsequent generations.
It's a cleverly written book, balancing an account of what happened in the 1940s and after - which, we need to keep remembering, can't be known to Eva because she hasn't been told things, she's been lied to, the witnesses are dead - with one set in the present day, taking in Eva's mourning silk, her doubts about herself and her father, her excitement at discovering Berlin and Budapest and in them, a couple of young men. Despite the aspects of the book that expose suffering and death, there is a great sense of life in Testament, not only in the modern parts but in the lives of the young refugees in Ambleside or the Jewish community in London (on the cusp of moving from the East End to North London).
Testament is a book that beautifully masters what it is trying to say, shows what has been and what the consequences can be. I loved the characters in this book, their flaws and their struggles, and felt that it truly honoured those who suffered and those who inherited aspects of that suffering.
It's also a book which has, because it must have, warnings for us, warning not to forget, warnings to be on guard, to keep watch.
The four shortlisted books are Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler (Fleet/ Little, Brown), Testament by Kim Sherwood (riverrun), The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus (Penned in the Margins) and salt slow by Julia Armfield (Picador).
About the Author
Kim Sherwood was born in Camden in 1989 and lives in Bath. She studied Creative Writing at UEA and is now Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England. Her pieces have appeared in Mslexia, Lighthouse, and Going Down Swinging. Kim began researching and writing Testament, her first novel, after her grandfather, the actor George Baker, passed away and her grandmother began to talk about her experiences as a Holocaust Survivor for the first time. It won the 2016 Bath Novel Award, was longlisted for the 2019 Desmond Elliot Prize and shortlisted for the 2019 Author’s Club Best First Novel Award.
About the Book
'The letter was in the Blue Room - her grandfather’s painting studio, where Eva spent the happier days of her childhood. After his death, she is the one responsible for his legacy - a legacy threatened by the letter she finds. It is from the Jewish Museum in Berlin. They have found the testimony her grandfather gave after surviving the labour camps in Austria. And, since he was one of Britain’s greatest twentieth century artists, they want to exhibit it. But Joseph Silk - leaving behind József Zyyad - remade himself long ago. As Eva begins to uncover the truth, she understands the trauma, and the lies, that have haunted her family. She will unravel what happened to József and his brother, who came to England as refugees. One never spoke of his past - the other couldn’t let it go. Their story - and that of the woman they both loved - is in her hands. Revealing it would change her grandfather’s hard- won identity. But it could also change the tide of history. This testament can lend words to wordless grief, and teach her how to live."
My review
Testament is one of those books which begins with a story that seems small, personal and intimate and then, almost without you realising, blossoms, expands and acquires wider resonance, deeper relevance and added meaning. While still remaining, in a sense, small, personal and intimate.
Eva is devoted to her elderly grandfather, artist Joseph Silk (Jószef Zyyad to some), who, as a young man, survived the horrors of wartime Hungary. As a Jew, he was enslaved, tortured, marched from camp to camp in the dying days of the war and lost his parents and sister, afterwards making a life for himself in England. Silk's (as he is generally referred to) choice was then to turn his back on the past, on the family he lost, the country that is no longer his own, the house he grew up in, everything from before. he certainly never wanted to tale part in reunions, contribute his testimony to museums, or to explore what was lost.
Granddaughter Eva, close to Silk and feeling herself rejected by her father John, is keen to protect Silk's legacy and reputation but most of all perhaps, his privacy. Approached by curators, journalists and art historians who want something of this eminent figure, this eminent survivor, she asks herself what Silk would want - and then closes down, even as she's dealing with the sale of his house and studio and the need to decide what should happen to everything, to decide how Silk should be marked in the world (even the text for a gravestone is impossible to settle). Inevitably that can't, in the end, hold, and Eva embarks reluctantly on a search for the truth, her easy trust in and love for Silk eroded by the discovery that he told her lies, lies, lies.
This is then a story about survival. While we are shown episodes from the Holocaust - those affecting Jószef, his brother László, and a young woman Zuzka - and these are very grim, the story is necessarily selective there (I don't think what we told is by any means the worst that happened) and really focusses, I think, on what happened after, when the three young survivors are brought to England, to the Lake District of all places. We see, slowly, the dilemma they face.
The need for safety and security. The alienness of this damp land, a country of grey streets and chilly attics. The ambivalence of the English who haven't suffered as Jószef, László and Zuzka have but who are the victors, the owners, in their own country, of the war, as it were. (And among whom there is still prejudice - anti Jewish, anti foreigner).
But also, rejection by a Hungary that joined in the Nazi purges and doesn't want them now, offers nothing, no family, no restored home, no life. (In the modern parts of this book, that's paralleled by the scary resurge in Hungary of the far Right with its attempts to airbrush history).
The three survivors find, in the end, different responses to this dilemma. I'm not going to say any more about what they are because Eva's discovery of all this is an important part of the story, for her and for her father - but none of them come without cost. And we see that while John. and Eva may be second and third generation survivors, they are still survivors and the ripples of what happened to a father and a grandfather spread out to affect subsequent generations.
It's a cleverly written book, balancing an account of what happened in the 1940s and after - which, we need to keep remembering, can't be known to Eva because she hasn't been told things, she's been lied to, the witnesses are dead - with one set in the present day, taking in Eva's mourning silk, her doubts about herself and her father, her excitement at discovering Berlin and Budapest and in them, a couple of young men. Despite the aspects of the book that expose suffering and death, there is a great sense of life in Testament, not only in the modern parts but in the lives of the young refugees in Ambleside or the Jewish community in London (on the cusp of moving from the East End to North London).
Testament is a book that beautifully masters what it is trying to say, shows what has been and what the consequences can be. I loved the characters in this book, their flaws and their struggles, and felt that it truly honoured those who suffered and those who inherited aspects of that suffering.
It's also a book which has, because it must have, warnings for us, warning not to forget, warnings to be on guard, to keep watch.
August 19, 2018
This book took about a week of bedtime reading to get though... A whole week of going to sleep with a heavy heart 😔
The book follows Eva, the granddaughter of the recently deceased Joseph Silk, a reasonably famous painter and Hungarian holocaust survivor.
Eva adored her grand father, as he did her, but he never talked about his past. He wanted to forget it ever happened and live his life. After his death Eva learns about a Testament Joseph Silk made shortly after he was freed from the labour camp and this is where Eva learns the truth of what happened to her grandfather whilst at the same time uncovering a shocking family secret.
While this book is so unbelievably sad it is beautifully written. There are some scenes of violence. The book describes some of the horrific things that happened to Jews during the war and although at times it was difficult to read, I know the scenes in this book are only a tiny taste of what these poor people suffered.
I don't think there was one character in this book that I didn't feel for or want to learn more about. And poor Joseph Silk. He may have lived his life never talking about the past and trying to forget but in reality, there wouldn't have been a single day in his life where he didn't think about what happened to him and his friends and family. Not one day 😔
It is a sad book but I loved it and I want to read more books about the war now. I may start with The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris since her recommendation is on the cover of this book! Thank you quercus books for sending me this book to review 😁
The book follows Eva, the granddaughter of the recently deceased Joseph Silk, a reasonably famous painter and Hungarian holocaust survivor.
Eva adored her grand father, as he did her, but he never talked about his past. He wanted to forget it ever happened and live his life. After his death Eva learns about a Testament Joseph Silk made shortly after he was freed from the labour camp and this is where Eva learns the truth of what happened to her grandfather whilst at the same time uncovering a shocking family secret.
While this book is so unbelievably sad it is beautifully written. There are some scenes of violence. The book describes some of the horrific things that happened to Jews during the war and although at times it was difficult to read, I know the scenes in this book are only a tiny taste of what these poor people suffered.
I don't think there was one character in this book that I didn't feel for or want to learn more about. And poor Joseph Silk. He may have lived his life never talking about the past and trying to forget but in reality, there wouldn't have been a single day in his life where he didn't think about what happened to him and his friends and family. Not one day 😔
It is a sad book but I loved it and I want to read more books about the war now. I may start with The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris since her recommendation is on the cover of this book! Thank you quercus books for sending me this book to review 😁
November 28, 2019
Eva’s attempts to record her grandfather’s life lead her to more discoveries than she might have imagined.
Testament is one of those books that is terribly difficult to review because it transcends the superlatives a reader might wish to apply to it. I found Kim Sherwood’s writing both beautiful and harrowing, deeply sad, yet ultimately uplifting, with an intensity that meant I had to force myself to breathe at times. It actually took me quite a while to read Testament as I had to take breaks to recover from what I’d just read.
The plot is skilfully constructed so that the events of the past reverberate and impact on the present completely convincingly. I loved the brilliant exploration of identity, of how we are shaped by the past, but equally, how we can construct our own identity, past and truths, even at the moment of being our most duplicitous. Silk is both nothing he claims to be and yet everything he claims to be, making him a complex, fascinating and compelling character. I felt I understood him completely and he became so real to me I wished I had known him personally too. The concepts of family, nationality and belonging swirl and eddy through the writing like the waters of the Danube itself, drawing me in to the narrative completely. I’m not usually a lover of dual time frames but thoroughly enjoyed them in Testament as the truth behind Silk’s life and Eva’s discovery of that truth merge together.
The quality of research that Kim Sherwood has put in to Testament is exemplary and I feel I have learnt a great deal more about the era; especially what happened to Jewish people post war. Reading Testament has reinforced what I thought I knew and shown me the ignorant acceptance of past times that I may have previously displayed so that I can honestly claim that this narrative has altered my perspectives. I found a real resonance in the exploration of grief and love too.
I loved the quality of the writing. Kim Sherwood’s description of place is so evocatively depicted through her use of the senses that it is possible to experience her settings almost first hand. Similarly, the immediacy of the action she describes is so vivid that events happening to Józef and László seem like films rather than text.
Kin Sherwood’s Testament is a powerful, absorbing and incredibly moving novel that has had a visceral effect on me, making me feel the emotional pain, the fear and the joy of the characters quite physically. I recommend it unreservedly. It’s quite wonderful.
https://lindasbookbag.com/2019/11/20/...
Testament is one of those books that is terribly difficult to review because it transcends the superlatives a reader might wish to apply to it. I found Kim Sherwood’s writing both beautiful and harrowing, deeply sad, yet ultimately uplifting, with an intensity that meant I had to force myself to breathe at times. It actually took me quite a while to read Testament as I had to take breaks to recover from what I’d just read.
The plot is skilfully constructed so that the events of the past reverberate and impact on the present completely convincingly. I loved the brilliant exploration of identity, of how we are shaped by the past, but equally, how we can construct our own identity, past and truths, even at the moment of being our most duplicitous. Silk is both nothing he claims to be and yet everything he claims to be, making him a complex, fascinating and compelling character. I felt I understood him completely and he became so real to me I wished I had known him personally too. The concepts of family, nationality and belonging swirl and eddy through the writing like the waters of the Danube itself, drawing me in to the narrative completely. I’m not usually a lover of dual time frames but thoroughly enjoyed them in Testament as the truth behind Silk’s life and Eva’s discovery of that truth merge together.
The quality of research that Kim Sherwood has put in to Testament is exemplary and I feel I have learnt a great deal more about the era; especially what happened to Jewish people post war. Reading Testament has reinforced what I thought I knew and shown me the ignorant acceptance of past times that I may have previously displayed so that I can honestly claim that this narrative has altered my perspectives. I found a real resonance in the exploration of grief and love too.
I loved the quality of the writing. Kim Sherwood’s description of place is so evocatively depicted through her use of the senses that it is possible to experience her settings almost first hand. Similarly, the immediacy of the action she describes is so vivid that events happening to Józef and László seem like films rather than text.
Kin Sherwood’s Testament is a powerful, absorbing and incredibly moving novel that has had a visceral effect on me, making me feel the emotional pain, the fear and the joy of the characters quite physically. I recommend it unreservedly. It’s quite wonderful.
https://lindasbookbag.com/2019/11/20/...
August 6, 2018
Can a man live a lie all his life?
Joseph Silk is a well-known artist of Hungarian descent. When asked when and where he was born he said London in 1945. This is a lie that begins his life of lies. He was, in fact, part of the labour force during the war, surviving the camps and long marches. His brother, Lazlo, is the only other survivor of his family.
60 years later after Joseph dies his granddaughter, Eva, is left desolate until she is contacted about a missing testament Joseph completed after the war. The life and grandfather she knew and loved was all a lie. She goes on a journey to find the real Joseph Silk and doesn’t always like what she finds.
Can she come to terms with how Joseph chose to live his life and betray his Jewish ancestry?
This is a very ambitious debut novel, but Kim Sherwood has done a fantastic job. Well-written, empathic and very sad, this book, although fiction, tells of a not so well-known atrocity of the labour forces and death marches as well as the aftermath of the war. For the displaced people, it did not end after VE Day.
My only complaint is the author tended towards too much detail in the wording. She used too many flowery phrases to describe the scenes and thoughts of the characters which deflected from the story and a lot of time the sentences did not make sense, and I had to re-read them and cut out all the silly adjectives.
All in all, a perfect read that would be even better after a good edit and a little rewrite.
Chester
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.
Joseph Silk is a well-known artist of Hungarian descent. When asked when and where he was born he said London in 1945. This is a lie that begins his life of lies. He was, in fact, part of the labour force during the war, surviving the camps and long marches. His brother, Lazlo, is the only other survivor of his family.
60 years later after Joseph dies his granddaughter, Eva, is left desolate until she is contacted about a missing testament Joseph completed after the war. The life and grandfather she knew and loved was all a lie. She goes on a journey to find the real Joseph Silk and doesn’t always like what she finds.
Can she come to terms with how Joseph chose to live his life and betray his Jewish ancestry?
This is a very ambitious debut novel, but Kim Sherwood has done a fantastic job. Well-written, empathic and very sad, this book, although fiction, tells of a not so well-known atrocity of the labour forces and death marches as well as the aftermath of the war. For the displaced people, it did not end after VE Day.
My only complaint is the author tended towards too much detail in the wording. She used too many flowery phrases to describe the scenes and thoughts of the characters which deflected from the story and a lot of time the sentences did not make sense, and I had to re-read them and cut out all the silly adjectives.
All in all, a perfect read that would be even better after a good edit and a little rewrite.
Chester
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.
November 13, 2018
When Eva's beloved grandfather dies she's realises that his death brings about far more questions than it does answers for it would seem that Joseph Silk has not been entirely truthful about his experiences during the Second World War.
Skillfully blending the past with the present a story emerges of a dark and shadowy time when Joseph was forced to work in horrendous circumstances in a labour camp in Hungary. His survival, from this dreadful time, was something he carried with him for the rest of his life, and yet, he didn't want to be defined by the terrible things he had witnessed. After his death, certain documents come to light which reveal more details about Joseph's WW2 experiences, and following a trip to the Jewish Museum in Berlin to read these documents, Eva must come to terms with the secrets her grandfather had kept hidden for so long. A burden of secrets and heartbreaking memories which Joseph Silk had wanted to be kept hidden forever.
Testament is a beautifully written and very moving story about the trauma of living through the holocaust and of the guilt and confusion of being one of the survivors. It's about the terror of being displaced without the shelter of home and family, and of the uncertainty of making a new future when all seemed hopeless.
A commendable and poignant debut novel from a talented new writer.
Skillfully blending the past with the present a story emerges of a dark and shadowy time when Joseph was forced to work in horrendous circumstances in a labour camp in Hungary. His survival, from this dreadful time, was something he carried with him for the rest of his life, and yet, he didn't want to be defined by the terrible things he had witnessed. After his death, certain documents come to light which reveal more details about Joseph's WW2 experiences, and following a trip to the Jewish Museum in Berlin to read these documents, Eva must come to terms with the secrets her grandfather had kept hidden for so long. A burden of secrets and heartbreaking memories which Joseph Silk had wanted to be kept hidden forever.
Testament is a beautifully written and very moving story about the trauma of living through the holocaust and of the guilt and confusion of being one of the survivors. It's about the terror of being displaced without the shelter of home and family, and of the uncertainty of making a new future when all seemed hopeless.
A commendable and poignant debut novel from a talented new writer.
December 11, 2019
It's a Holocaust novel, and as such has several distressing scenes in both the camps, but particularly during the forced marches toward the end of the War. I lead with this because I know not everyone can stomach Holocaust fiction, and this one doesn't blur out the details.
Having said that it's a really strong debut. After Eva’s famous grandfather dies - Joseph Silk the painter - she discovers that seven decades previously he left a Testament about his experiences during the War, a document he believed was destroyed, but now is in the hands of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. This revelation leads Eva on a journey about her grandfather’s traumatic past, a past that Joseph Silk did his best to wipe from his memory and forget.
Testament is a book about turning your back on your culture, on your faith, and on your family to avoid any mention of a devastating past. The flashbacks do more than depict suffering at the hands of the Nazis; they show what happened to European Jews who survived the horrors of the camps and, in some cases, were sent to England after the war. At times the book reads like a potboiler as truths about Silk’s past come to life, but Sherwood never undercuts the brutality of the Holocaust.
Having said that it's a really strong debut. After Eva’s famous grandfather dies - Joseph Silk the painter - she discovers that seven decades previously he left a Testament about his experiences during the War, a document he believed was destroyed, but now is in the hands of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. This revelation leads Eva on a journey about her grandfather’s traumatic past, a past that Joseph Silk did his best to wipe from his memory and forget.
Testament is a book about turning your back on your culture, on your faith, and on your family to avoid any mention of a devastating past. The flashbacks do more than depict suffering at the hands of the Nazis; they show what happened to European Jews who survived the horrors of the camps and, in some cases, were sent to England after the war. At times the book reads like a potboiler as truths about Silk’s past come to life, but Sherwood never undercuts the brutality of the Holocaust.
November 15, 2019
Eva's grandfather; a well respected and renowned artist has died. Eva is devastated by his death and not only has to deal with her own grief but that of his friends and admirers from all over the world. It feels as though Joseph Silk belonged to everyone, not just his family.
Joseph left Hungary in 1945 and had a successful life in Britain. He didn't speak about his early life and when Eva comes across documentation linking him to the Jewish Museum in Berlin, she is both intrigued and very surprised. It seems that Joseph completed a 'Testament' detailing the time he spent in a Hungarian Labour Camp. This Testament has been recently discovered by one of the curators of the Museum and he would like to include it in an upcoming exhibition.
Eva travels to Berlin and it is whilst she is there that she discovers the truth that Joseph spent so long hiding from his family, and hiding from it himself.
Also interweaved within the modern-day story, the author cleverly tells Joseph's story in his own words as a teenager. This enables the reader to gain a rounded view of circumstances and the long-term effects these have had on a family.
This is an important and passionate story and the author's writing is beautiful; quite lyrical in places. There were times though that I felt the beauty of the prose took away something of the harshness of the story; almost as though the contrast was just a little too much. However, there is no denying that this such a powerful and accomplished debut. It's a startling and eye-opening read; which took my breath away in parts.
Testament is not only the detailed story of the horrors of wartime atrocities, it is also a detailed and wonderfully perceptive novel of relationships; and especially the relationship between Eva and her father, and grandfather.
Astute and compelling. An excellent debut from an author to watch out for.
Joseph left Hungary in 1945 and had a successful life in Britain. He didn't speak about his early life and when Eva comes across documentation linking him to the Jewish Museum in Berlin, she is both intrigued and very surprised. It seems that Joseph completed a 'Testament' detailing the time he spent in a Hungarian Labour Camp. This Testament has been recently discovered by one of the curators of the Museum and he would like to include it in an upcoming exhibition.
Eva travels to Berlin and it is whilst she is there that she discovers the truth that Joseph spent so long hiding from his family, and hiding from it himself.
Also interweaved within the modern-day story, the author cleverly tells Joseph's story in his own words as a teenager. This enables the reader to gain a rounded view of circumstances and the long-term effects these have had on a family.
This is an important and passionate story and the author's writing is beautiful; quite lyrical in places. There were times though that I felt the beauty of the prose took away something of the harshness of the story; almost as though the contrast was just a little too much. However, there is no denying that this such a powerful and accomplished debut. It's a startling and eye-opening read; which took my breath away in parts.
Testament is not only the detailed story of the horrors of wartime atrocities, it is also a detailed and wonderfully perceptive novel of relationships; and especially the relationship between Eva and her father, and grandfather.
Astute and compelling. An excellent debut from an author to watch out for.
July 16, 2018
Joseph Silk is dead. While the art world commemorates one of Britain’s greatest 20th-century painters, the Jewish Museum in Berlin wants to capitalise on his reputation to publicise his testimony of Nazi atrocities. Meanwhile, his son John is so bitter about his failures as a father, he might not even attend the funeral.
It falls to John’s twenty-something daughter Eva to piece together the different versions of her beloved grandfather’s life. When he died, she was making a documentary about him. Travelling to Berlin, and to his native Hungary, where Silk began life as Jósef Zyyad before reinventing himself as an Englishman, she wonders if she’ll finish it. Or is she, as her father insists, using her camera to hide herself?
Full review
A lifetime of lies: Testament & Should You Ask Me http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...
It falls to John’s twenty-something daughter Eva to piece together the different versions of her beloved grandfather’s life. When he died, she was making a documentary about him. Travelling to Berlin, and to his native Hungary, where Silk began life as Jósef Zyyad before reinventing himself as an Englishman, she wonders if she’ll finish it. Or is she, as her father insists, using her camera to hide herself?
Full review
A lifetime of lies: Testament & Should You Ask Me http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...
October 23, 2018
Beautiful prose. I liked the portrayal of how trauma filters down the generations and the different connections between family members, some bitter, some close. However, despite having read many Holocaust novels, I found some of the horror unrelenting and hard to read this time around, and there were some confusing aspects of the story as the secrets of Josef's life were gradually revealed.
September 8, 2018
This was not just another holocaust novel. Although certain details of the enforced Labour camps, the death march and the massacre at Cservenka, this book concentrates on the aftermath of war and the effect on subsequent generations. It is well researched and has also become increasingly relevant in the last few years. The many flashbacks and the different viewpoints was initially confusing but became easier as I was drawn into the story. The characters were often flawed but real and Jozsef's reactions to the traumas he endured as a young man was a strong contrast to those of his wife and brother but was it morally right? And since the novel concentrated on the plight of the Hungarian Jews I learnt a great deal about the history of that country. It was easy to come away with a slightly jaundiced view of the fascist regime and how they dealt with the marginal groups. I was fortunate however, to listen to the author's summary of her novel in Plymouth on Thursday, it was interesting to hear how her own family history was an inspiration for the book and heartwarming to hear of the Hungarian nationals attempts to rescue the Jews as the situation in their country became more extreme and dangerous.
October 13, 2018
Beautiful written.
June 22, 2018
Joseph Silk is a Hungarian Jew who was "reborn" on his arrival to the UK in 1945 as a refugee. Prior to this he was interned in a labour camp in the last year or so of the War. Joseph chooses to forget his life prior to his arrival in the UK, however, following his death, his "testament" of this time in his life is revealed in the Jewish Museum in Berlin. His granddaughter travels to the museum to find out more out Joseph's life prior to 1945. I enjoyed this book, although I found the writing style quite difficult to get into at first. It is a story of survival, of secrets, of love and the importance of future generations knowing what went before.
October 3, 2019
Simply amazing the story of this calibre I’m astonished that this is the authors first book from the moment I picked it up and started reading I was transfixed the story has you hooked - you believe in the characters the story - the overall picture this is storytelling of the finest a true gem of a book.
Overall the story of the book was nothing short of a complete amazement you felt like you was on the journey with Eva on finding the true story about her grandad the woven ness between modern and old was truly transfixing - overall it was something which spellbounded me - I truly recommend this to everyone who has the chance to read this gem
Overall the story of the book was nothing short of a complete amazement you felt like you was on the journey with Eva on finding the true story about her grandad the woven ness between modern and old was truly transfixing - overall it was something which spellbounded me - I truly recommend this to everyone who has the chance to read this gem
October 4, 2018
This stunningly assured debut is a rich, rewarding and sometimes harrowing exploration of history, family and masks; of stories and lies as well as of art and politics.
Sherwood skilfully weaves the present day with World War II and its aftermath and in so doing faces big questions through human stories.
The prose is at once dense and spare and betrays a poetic sensibility. The issues raised are age old and urgently relevant
Sherwood skilfully weaves the present day with World War II and its aftermath and in so doing faces big questions through human stories.
The prose is at once dense and spare and betrays a poetic sensibility. The issues raised are age old and urgently relevant
July 19, 2019
Poignant. An original portrayal of a terrifying narrative entrenched in our history.
July 19, 2022
I came across this book because of James Bond.
Over the past few years I got hooked on the recent movies starred by Daniel Craig and got interested on knowing more about this universe. Even more so when the news broke that Amazon would buy MGM and bring the thick of it’s catalog into Prime Video, including the entire James Bond franchise. Even though I had not find the will to delve into the Ian Fleming books I read a lot about them, about the author and about the legacy projects that came later (like the very good reboot written by Jeffery Deaver, Carter Blanche), about the movies, and so on and so on.
During this trip — fueled mostly by my constant obsessions about different things and the almost pathological need to understand them through and through — I saw the news that a new trilogy would be published, written by a young British writer called Kim Sherwood. Well, the obsession going the way it goes, I went after her body of work to know more about her and her style. Her only published book was Testament.
I found a brand new copy, wrapped in plastic still, of the book on Brazil’s Amazon for and unbelievable cheap offer of 15 Reais (less than 5 american dollars by the current exchange rate). I didn’t think twice and bought. Too good to let pass the chance.
Alright, all of this preamble was just to say that it felt to me the universe conspired to make me read this book. Corny thing to say, I know, but it’s true. It had been quite some time since a story hold such grip over me and made feel so much things. One of those reads that will keep resonating on your mind — and your soul — for a long time after you read the last page and close the book.
There are many book out there about the horrors of the war and the Holocaust, the true living hell Jews, and many other minorities, lived on those days, but not many of them talk about the aftermath of survival.
Kim Sherwood guide us through a maze of generational trauma, family secrets, hidden history and the long lasting effects of antisemitism and hate speech. But most importantly here is the brutal way that the Holocaust crushed identities, reduced human beings with life history, personality, legacies and a whole cultural background into empty shells, into just homeless survivors that didn’t had anything anymore, no more roots, no more history, no more safe havens to return to and start over. A kind of cruelty that usually flies under the radar, shadowed by the more graphic acts that reaped so many lives and haunts the word to this day. The ones who survived also died, and had to be reborn into something else.
And this something else was either the constant fight to regain this destroyed identity or the complete forsaking of it in exchange for a new life and a new history. Two diametrically opposite paths that leave a lot of hurt strays on the way. Two brothers and a woman between them, all scarred by the horrors and crushing hand of the Holocaust, navigating those paths and trying to find what is best for them.
Discovering this story at the same time as the reader is Eva who, the granddaughter of one of the brothers, who had the deal with grief, the pain of hidden truths, make sense out of her own history and heritage, also trying to find her own identity and her place on the world where the shadows of the war still loom large.
Although all of this sounds so dark and bleak, Testament is actually a story that strives in light and beauty, on hope, on the true wish to make amends, on seeking healing. Sherwood gift us with a protagonist who is so incredible human, frail, broken but also brave, resilient, willing the face the ugliness of hard, bitter truths so she can go through the needed mourning to heal the grief and built her own way ahead, knowing where she is going and where she came from.
It’s even uplifting, inspiring, beautiful to see someone so relatable to all of us millennials squeezed by the madness of the current world find the strength to fight for her own peace of mind and heart. Most of us don’t have a life story like that, far, far from it, but we can see so much of ourselves in Eva and her struggles that is hard not to feel empathy and then happiness for her.
A remarkable book from a remarkable young woman. Elegiac, elegant, beautiful, stylistic like a collection of video clips built into a linear story that invite us into a private world, a private life, a lesson about how just surviving is not not enough, an act of kindness that I lack the words to express how thankful I am for the opportunity.
Over the past few years I got hooked on the recent movies starred by Daniel Craig and got interested on knowing more about this universe. Even more so when the news broke that Amazon would buy MGM and bring the thick of it’s catalog into Prime Video, including the entire James Bond franchise. Even though I had not find the will to delve into the Ian Fleming books I read a lot about them, about the author and about the legacy projects that came later (like the very good reboot written by Jeffery Deaver, Carter Blanche), about the movies, and so on and so on.
During this trip — fueled mostly by my constant obsessions about different things and the almost pathological need to understand them through and through — I saw the news that a new trilogy would be published, written by a young British writer called Kim Sherwood. Well, the obsession going the way it goes, I went after her body of work to know more about her and her style. Her only published book was Testament.
I found a brand new copy, wrapped in plastic still, of the book on Brazil’s Amazon for and unbelievable cheap offer of 15 Reais (less than 5 american dollars by the current exchange rate). I didn’t think twice and bought. Too good to let pass the chance.
Alright, all of this preamble was just to say that it felt to me the universe conspired to make me read this book. Corny thing to say, I know, but it’s true. It had been quite some time since a story hold such grip over me and made feel so much things. One of those reads that will keep resonating on your mind — and your soul — for a long time after you read the last page and close the book.
There are many book out there about the horrors of the war and the Holocaust, the true living hell Jews, and many other minorities, lived on those days, but not many of them talk about the aftermath of survival.
Kim Sherwood guide us through a maze of generational trauma, family secrets, hidden history and the long lasting effects of antisemitism and hate speech. But most importantly here is the brutal way that the Holocaust crushed identities, reduced human beings with life history, personality, legacies and a whole cultural background into empty shells, into just homeless survivors that didn’t had anything anymore, no more roots, no more history, no more safe havens to return to and start over. A kind of cruelty that usually flies under the radar, shadowed by the more graphic acts that reaped so many lives and haunts the word to this day. The ones who survived also died, and had to be reborn into something else.
And this something else was either the constant fight to regain this destroyed identity or the complete forsaking of it in exchange for a new life and a new history. Two diametrically opposite paths that leave a lot of hurt strays on the way. Two brothers and a woman between them, all scarred by the horrors and crushing hand of the Holocaust, navigating those paths and trying to find what is best for them.
Discovering this story at the same time as the reader is Eva who, the granddaughter of one of the brothers, who had the deal with grief, the pain of hidden truths, make sense out of her own history and heritage, also trying to find her own identity and her place on the world where the shadows of the war still loom large.
Although all of this sounds so dark and bleak, Testament is actually a story that strives in light and beauty, on hope, on the true wish to make amends, on seeking healing. Sherwood gift us with a protagonist who is so incredible human, frail, broken but also brave, resilient, willing the face the ugliness of hard, bitter truths so she can go through the needed mourning to heal the grief and built her own way ahead, knowing where she is going and where she came from.
It’s even uplifting, inspiring, beautiful to see someone so relatable to all of us millennials squeezed by the madness of the current world find the strength to fight for her own peace of mind and heart. Most of us don’t have a life story like that, far, far from it, but we can see so much of ourselves in Eva and her struggles that is hard not to feel empathy and then happiness for her.
A remarkable book from a remarkable young woman. Elegiac, elegant, beautiful, stylistic like a collection of video clips built into a linear story that invite us into a private world, a private life, a lesson about how just surviving is not not enough, an act of kindness that I lack the words to express how thankful I am for the opportunity.
December 3, 2021
So...I have experience with the holocaust. I am 63, jewish and my family was ravaged and eliminated in Europe. I grew up with people with tattoos. I have met people unimaginably scarred by their experiences. While the actual holocaust recounting is really quite excellent, the young womans journey of "discovery" and the constant "shock" at people lying about their past, was pretty poorly done.
Many survivors wont talk. They don't want to talk and may refuse to talk. Nor do they want to continually remember and reexperience what they survived.
The protagonists continuous discovery of this isnt shocking, what is shocking is her cluelessness. The phenomenon of denial by people who have been traumatised isn't exactly unusual in daily life, let alone in relationship to the extraordinary.
The book is written as if there is going to be some big reveal. There is none. Just pain, suffering, dysfunctionality and depression.
If the story had been told, without the pretense of cluelessness and the buildup to nothing...that would be the typical experience of the children of survivors.
My uncle told NO ONE about his experience. He told NO ONE how he lost his leg. I have been estranged from that branch of the family most of my life. His daughter asked that I attend his 80th birthday party. My uncle and I had a particular bond of country of origin, that the rest of his family lacked. At his party he was surprised and pleased to see me. Ignoring everyone else in the room, he told me his story. When he was done, I rose and found his daughters crying...why, he had never told them of his death march and being locked in a leiterwagon and machine gunned, and of having his leg removed on a train station platform by the Russians.
This is not unusual. People hide shame and pain and suffering from those they love.
The child certainly, and a grand child likely, would have understood this from the get-go.
The shocking reveal? That she was so clueless.
Many survivors wont talk. They don't want to talk and may refuse to talk. Nor do they want to continually remember and reexperience what they survived.
The protagonists continuous discovery of this isnt shocking, what is shocking is her cluelessness. The phenomenon of denial by people who have been traumatised isn't exactly unusual in daily life, let alone in relationship to the extraordinary.
The book is written as if there is going to be some big reveal. There is none. Just pain, suffering, dysfunctionality and depression.
If the story had been told, without the pretense of cluelessness and the buildup to nothing...that would be the typical experience of the children of survivors.
My uncle told NO ONE about his experience. He told NO ONE how he lost his leg. I have been estranged from that branch of the family most of my life. His daughter asked that I attend his 80th birthday party. My uncle and I had a particular bond of country of origin, that the rest of his family lacked. At his party he was surprised and pleased to see me. Ignoring everyone else in the room, he told me his story. When he was done, I rose and found his daughters crying...why, he had never told them of his death march and being locked in a leiterwagon and machine gunned, and of having his leg removed on a train station platform by the Russians.
This is not unusual. People hide shame and pain and suffering from those they love.
The child certainly, and a grand child likely, would have understood this from the get-go.
The shocking reveal? That she was so clueless.
December 4, 2019
Firstly, I would just like to say thank you so much to FMCM Associates for sending me a copy of this book. Going into it I didn't know much about it and I'm glad I didn't, this book is a story of discovery and I enjoyed discovering it along the way.
This book focuses on a Holocaust survivor who wants to erase his past, why? You'll have to read more to find out. The self discovery of his grand-daughter whilst on the journey to find out her grandfathers past is the main focus within this book. What happened? Why has he lied to her all her life? Secrets, lies, a love triangle maybe?
I found that the character development was great within this, the author really takes care in creating characters that the reader will inevitably care about. I loved Eva, her relationship with her grandfather was wonderful. Her dad not so much, but I felt that pain. I felt what she was feeling throughout her journey of discovery. I also enjoyed moving to the past throughout the book and finding out further information about József's past and what led him to the situation that he found himself in in the later stages of his life. I feel that this was a good idea and impactive to the reader. It is probably what kept me holding on with the book.
I enjoyed the premise of this book, it is something that I haven't read about before and therefore found the idea endearing. The actual execution of it I struggled with. Whilst the writing style was beautiful, I struggled with it. I feel like this book could have been 100 pages less and maybe would have been a bit more enjoyable. I found myself skim reading the last 100 pages. I was invested to the point where I wanted to finish it but I wanted to do it quicker than I feel the book would allow.
This book focuses on a Holocaust survivor who wants to erase his past, why? You'll have to read more to find out. The self discovery of his grand-daughter whilst on the journey to find out her grandfathers past is the main focus within this book. What happened? Why has he lied to her all her life? Secrets, lies, a love triangle maybe?
I found that the character development was great within this, the author really takes care in creating characters that the reader will inevitably care about. I loved Eva, her relationship with her grandfather was wonderful. Her dad not so much, but I felt that pain. I felt what she was feeling throughout her journey of discovery. I also enjoyed moving to the past throughout the book and finding out further information about József's past and what led him to the situation that he found himself in in the later stages of his life. I feel that this was a good idea and impactive to the reader. It is probably what kept me holding on with the book.
I enjoyed the premise of this book, it is something that I haven't read about before and therefore found the idea endearing. The actual execution of it I struggled with. Whilst the writing style was beautiful, I struggled with it. I feel like this book could have been 100 pages less and maybe would have been a bit more enjoyable. I found myself skim reading the last 100 pages. I was invested to the point where I wanted to finish it but I wanted to do it quicker than I feel the book would allow.
August 21, 2022
A simply superb novel about, not just surviving the Holocaust, but also about surviving life afterwards. Sherwood's exceptional prose (reads more like poetry) grabs your intense interest from the minute you begin the first chapter.
And the story is compulsive. If I hadn't had to live in the real world, I could have read the novel from beginning to end without moving from my armchair.
I am a Hampstead person, lived there for 50 years, and perhaps this gave me an edge in that I recognised so much. I don't mean just in terms of people or places, but I recognised states of mind.
Pockets of family and friends were cultured survivors, others, costers and taxi drivers . Communism Zionism, the quiet need to become more English than the English, all of this surrounded me too.
So yes I recognised much in this heart rending and lyrical testament .
I don't remember another account that deals so specifically with how the traumatised young men and women, coped after the war. Or how their children and grandchildren were affected. I'm sure they exist and I'd welcome pointers in those directions. But this is an exceptional, poignant fiction based on what really happened to Sherwood's family.
I am now keen to read her subsequent work and am overjoyed to hear Kim Sherwood is the author of the forthcoming new generation of Bond novels . They are bound to be brilliant.
And the story is compulsive. If I hadn't had to live in the real world, I could have read the novel from beginning to end without moving from my armchair.
I am a Hampstead person, lived there for 50 years, and perhaps this gave me an edge in that I recognised so much. I don't mean just in terms of people or places, but I recognised states of mind.
Pockets of family and friends were cultured survivors, others, costers and taxi drivers . Communism Zionism, the quiet need to become more English than the English, all of this surrounded me too.
So yes I recognised much in this heart rending and lyrical testament .
I don't remember another account that deals so specifically with how the traumatised young men and women, coped after the war. Or how their children and grandchildren were affected. I'm sure they exist and I'd welcome pointers in those directions. But this is an exceptional, poignant fiction based on what really happened to Sherwood's family.
I am now keen to read her subsequent work and am overjoyed to hear Kim Sherwood is the author of the forthcoming new generation of Bond novels . They are bound to be brilliant.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2019
A lyrical and thought-provoking novel about how we curate what we remember and what we forget creating our own history and identity.
When Eva Butler's beloved grandfather painter Joseph Silk dies, the world pays tribute. As she tries to write his eulogy, she finds a letter from the Jewish Museum in Berlin asking for his permission to use his answers to a questionnaire he answered for the national Relief Committee for Deportees in Budapest in 1945. When the request initially arrived, Silk told her to throw it away.
On a whim, she decides to fly to Berlin to see the testament. What she finds, transforms her understanding of her grandfather and sets her on a voyage to discover more about the lost family he never spoke about.
The more she learns that he kept hidden, the more she has to wrestle with the questions of who owns his history and whether he had a right to keep his experiences in the Holocaust private. Eventually, she discovers that Joseph Silk went beyond not discussing his experiences, he lied about some of them.
When Eva Butler's beloved grandfather painter Joseph Silk dies, the world pays tribute. As she tries to write his eulogy, she finds a letter from the Jewish Museum in Berlin asking for his permission to use his answers to a questionnaire he answered for the national Relief Committee for Deportees in Budapest in 1945. When the request initially arrived, Silk told her to throw it away.
On a whim, she decides to fly to Berlin to see the testament. What she finds, transforms her understanding of her grandfather and sets her on a voyage to discover more about the lost family he never spoke about.
The more she learns that he kept hidden, the more she has to wrestle with the questions of who owns his history and whether he had a right to keep his experiences in the Holocaust private. Eventually, she discovers that Joseph Silk went beyond not discussing his experiences, he lied about some of them.
August 31, 2019
When her grandfather Joseph Silk dies, Eva is forced to confront the hidden fractures between her father and his father. Silk was an important painter, famed for the intense blue tones he used, but he was also a Hungarian Jew who suffered through the war. Eva is contacted by the Jewish Museum in Berlin, they have Silk's 'testament' - the statement he made after liberation - so Eva goes to see it and it opens up the secrets long buried.
Flitting between the present and the past, this novel tells the story of a family destroyed by the Nazis and the breaking up of Eastern Europe. The scenes set in the labour camps and amongst the prisoners are heartrendingly written. The choices made by the protagonists are contextualised beautifully. However Eva's story is no less complex and the ending is suitably not complete. This is very mature writing from a debut novelist and it is fantastic to see that this book is being noticed for awards because it combines the very higher literary form with a story that resonates.
Flitting between the present and the past, this novel tells the story of a family destroyed by the Nazis and the breaking up of Eastern Europe. The scenes set in the labour camps and amongst the prisoners are heartrendingly written. The choices made by the protagonists are contextualised beautifully. However Eva's story is no less complex and the ending is suitably not complete. This is very mature writing from a debut novelist and it is fantastic to see that this book is being noticed for awards because it combines the very higher literary form with a story that resonates.
June 24, 2019
This is not an easy or entertaining read but it's a book that involves you and touch your emotions giving you food for thought.
I'm usually a fast reader but it took me a while to read it as I wanted to savour the pages and didn't want to go in an emotive overload.
The style of writing is amazing, it's intimistic and powerful at the same time and it makes you lives what is being written on the page.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
I'm usually a fast reader but it took me a while to read it as I wanted to savour the pages and didn't want to go in an emotive overload.
The style of writing is amazing, it's intimistic and powerful at the same time and it makes you lives what is being written on the page.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
August 21, 2022
I loved the story in this book. I was so engaged with the characters and I was interested to learn more about the Hungarian Holocaust. I found the writing style difficult to read, as in I found i had to re-read sentences again and again to understand. I also found it frustrating that Eva accused Silk of lying to her, however, I felt it was more that he didn't tell her things, as opposed to outright lies. John he certainly lied to, but Eva? I'm not sure.
I did enjoy the book and I was engaged in the history but the writing style was difficult for me.
I did enjoy the book and I was engaged in the history but the writing style was difficult for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2025
I had high hopes for this book but sadly finished it immensely disappointed. The plot was weak and slow to develop with several bizarre additions/twists. I felt the plot never fully developed and the ending was a complete flop. The characters were under developed and superficial. The addition of historical/touristic details were handled poorly - they were just dumped in the narrative with little effort to integrate into the plot. It was what I call the hope and pray approach to writing - hope it works. It really didn’t.
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