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Broken Oaths
Heidelberg, 1938 Doctor Sárkány's career is crumbling. The once eminent pathologist begins to lose everything that he holds dear - his reputation, position and pride. But what of his wife, Éva? What of his twin daughters and unborn son? Surely his family are more important than any profession? His vanity and covetousness do not see it that way. He blames his Jewish wife for his downfall.
Sárkány's marriage vows matter less to him than his doctor's oath as he begins to desecrate them both with adultery and Nazi ideology. He will do anything to get his career bribes, lies, sex, abortions... perhaps the life of his very own flesh and blood.
But all is in vain. After fleeing to Hungary, the German invasion of 1944 sees the family incarcerated in the Munkács Ghetto before being finally crammed into Eichmann's cattle cars destined for Poland. Sárkány has betrayed his family, but can he betray his own people when he arrives outside the crematorium gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau?
Dr. Josef Mengele thinks he can. And in Auschwitz, Mengele is King.
Sárkány's marriage vows matter less to him than his doctor's oath as he begins to desecrate them both with adultery and Nazi ideology. He will do anything to get his career bribes, lies, sex, abortions... perhaps the life of his very own flesh and blood.
But all is in vain. After fleeing to Hungary, the German invasion of 1944 sees the family incarcerated in the Munkács Ghetto before being finally crammed into Eichmann's cattle cars destined for Poland. Sárkány has betrayed his family, but can he betray his own people when he arrives outside the crematorium gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau?
Dr. Josef Mengele thinks he can. And in Auschwitz, Mengele is King.
334 pages, Hardcover
First published June 25, 2021
4 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Norman Mounter
3 books12 followersI have three intellectual passions: medicine, history and literature. At forty-nine years of age, I am full-time Histopathologist working on the Isle of Wight.
The opportunity to develop my other interests – history and literature – came about when I was in my early forties. My two sons were no longer children and I had managed to secure a permanent consultant position.
This led me to write my first novel, ‘Bitching Bits of Bone’. Published in 2016 by Austin Macauley, this dark comedic retelling of Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ allowed me to explore aspects of fourteenth century medicine.
Four years on, my second novel has permitted me to fully flex my medical muscles and to concentrate my expertise upon arguably one of the darkest places in human history: the pathology laboratory of Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The opportunity to develop my other interests – history and literature – came about when I was in my early forties. My two sons were no longer children and I had managed to secure a permanent consultant position.
This led me to write my first novel, ‘Bitching Bits of Bone’. Published in 2016 by Austin Macauley, this dark comedic retelling of Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ allowed me to explore aspects of fourteenth century medicine.
Four years on, my second novel has permitted me to fully flex my medical muscles and to concentrate my expertise upon arguably one of the darkest places in human history: the pathology laboratory of Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 11, 2022
I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.
It’s important that we never forget Auschwitz and that we never forget the war crimes Nazi Germany committed. Because we need to know and understand what humanity is capable of, we need to know what extreme hate looks like so we can work towards building a world free from it. Norman Mounter is an amazing author, and he takes a horrible moment in history and makes it informative and understandable. He is a master of his craft and I can’t say enough good things about this book!
It’s important that we never forget Auschwitz and that we never forget the war crimes Nazi Germany committed. Because we need to know and understand what humanity is capable of, we need to know what extreme hate looks like so we can work towards building a world free from it. Norman Mounter is an amazing author, and he takes a horrible moment in history and makes it informative and understandable. He is a master of his craft and I can’t say enough good things about this book!
October 2, 2021
BRILLIANT. HORRIFIC. HAUNTING.
So, where to begin? With a plot overview, I suppose. This is a mix of fact and fiction: A fictional character mixing with real people and real events. It’s set in the second world war and features a fictional doctor, who due to being half Jewish, ends up at Auschwitz. By virtue of the fact he is quite a highly-qualified doctor, he escapes the gas chambers by becoming the assistant to Dr Mengele, the real-life “Angel of Death” Nazi doctor.
The author is also a doctor: Dr Norman Mounter: That’s not the non-medical PhD type of doctor by the way, that’s REAL doctor: He’s a practicing medical doctor in real life, a histopathologist, to be precise. Dr Mounter will hereafter be referred to as “Norm”.
What’s clever here is that you don’t have to wait for the narrative to get to Auschwitz before the novel “gets interesting” or “gets going”, it holds your attention from the start. Additionally, suspension of disbelief is very easy here, because of the sheer quality of the writing. It’s written as if it’s a diary of the main protagonists, however due to the excellent quality of the writing, I kept lapsing into thinking I was reading a real autobiography or real diary and then with a metaphorical jolt, I’d “wake up” and remember I was reading fiction!
So what’s the genre of the book? To be honest, I’d say horror. Once we get to Auschwitz, it’s relentless gore, horror and depravity. Why? Does Norm have a penchant for this? He seems a civilized chap, pursuing a respectable middle-class existence as a practicing doctor on the Isle of Wight with his beautiful wife and two fine lads: Why would Norm want to write all this sick sh*t? Is the setting just a flimsy pretext for churning out a load of “horror porn” for Norm’s own gratification? Is that was he’s into? NO! It’s very important not to misunderstand the horror aspect: Every single horrific act described in the book, be it gory, gross, depraved or a mix of more than one of those ACTUALLY HAPPENED. As Norm himself put it: “None of the atrocities are made up - that's the tragedy.” He’s not having a horror binge, he’s giving a very clear indication of just how appallingly the Jews were treated by the Nazis. The Holocaust was such a terrible thing, I personally feel everyone should know about it and what was involved. In this novel, Norm is giving an accurate portrayal of the sheer extent of the horrors inflicted on the Jews.
However, to pull this off this level of accuracy, Norm conducted a truly vast amount of research before writing the book. To me it seems the research was at least as big a task, possibly even bigger, than the task of writing the novel itself. Let us please marvel at Norm’s persistence and tenacity in actually seeing the novel through to the end and not getting burned out by the subject long beforehand.
This has to be a balanced review though, so are there any negatives? In my opinion, too much medical terminology that goes unexplained. If Norm’s target audience was solely the medical fraternity this would be fine, but I assume he’d like the target audience of his novel to be wider than that? Greater commercial potential for the book? In that case, from my point of view as a layman, we needed the medical terminology either to be explained in the text or with footnotes. I got bored stopping and Googling the terms after a while. On two occasions I was reading the book in the middle of the night after yet another bout of allergic rhinitis-induced insomnia, so both my phone and laptop were switched off and not at hand to look up all the jargon, so I’d plough on semi-blindly. Incidentally, on both of those occasions, when I went back to bed I had Holocaust-themed nightmares. Further testament to the quality of the writing!
Anyway, don’t let that put you off: Just buy and read the book, seriously. You’ll be missing out big time if you don’t. The merits vastly outweigh the (perceived) negatives. I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say “Broken Oaths” is a modern masterpiece. Well done Norm. Now what else has he written, I wonder? That could be an easy answer to the question of “Now what book shall I read next?”
So, where to begin? With a plot overview, I suppose. This is a mix of fact and fiction: A fictional character mixing with real people and real events. It’s set in the second world war and features a fictional doctor, who due to being half Jewish, ends up at Auschwitz. By virtue of the fact he is quite a highly-qualified doctor, he escapes the gas chambers by becoming the assistant to Dr Mengele, the real-life “Angel of Death” Nazi doctor.
The author is also a doctor: Dr Norman Mounter: That’s not the non-medical PhD type of doctor by the way, that’s REAL doctor: He’s a practicing medical doctor in real life, a histopathologist, to be precise. Dr Mounter will hereafter be referred to as “Norm”.
What’s clever here is that you don’t have to wait for the narrative to get to Auschwitz before the novel “gets interesting” or “gets going”, it holds your attention from the start. Additionally, suspension of disbelief is very easy here, because of the sheer quality of the writing. It’s written as if it’s a diary of the main protagonists, however due to the excellent quality of the writing, I kept lapsing into thinking I was reading a real autobiography or real diary and then with a metaphorical jolt, I’d “wake up” and remember I was reading fiction!
So what’s the genre of the book? To be honest, I’d say horror. Once we get to Auschwitz, it’s relentless gore, horror and depravity. Why? Does Norm have a penchant for this? He seems a civilized chap, pursuing a respectable middle-class existence as a practicing doctor on the Isle of Wight with his beautiful wife and two fine lads: Why would Norm want to write all this sick sh*t? Is the setting just a flimsy pretext for churning out a load of “horror porn” for Norm’s own gratification? Is that was he’s into? NO! It’s very important not to misunderstand the horror aspect: Every single horrific act described in the book, be it gory, gross, depraved or a mix of more than one of those ACTUALLY HAPPENED. As Norm himself put it: “None of the atrocities are made up - that's the tragedy.” He’s not having a horror binge, he’s giving a very clear indication of just how appallingly the Jews were treated by the Nazis. The Holocaust was such a terrible thing, I personally feel everyone should know about it and what was involved. In this novel, Norm is giving an accurate portrayal of the sheer extent of the horrors inflicted on the Jews.
However, to pull this off this level of accuracy, Norm conducted a truly vast amount of research before writing the book. To me it seems the research was at least as big a task, possibly even bigger, than the task of writing the novel itself. Let us please marvel at Norm’s persistence and tenacity in actually seeing the novel through to the end and not getting burned out by the subject long beforehand.
This has to be a balanced review though, so are there any negatives? In my opinion, too much medical terminology that goes unexplained. If Norm’s target audience was solely the medical fraternity this would be fine, but I assume he’d like the target audience of his novel to be wider than that? Greater commercial potential for the book? In that case, from my point of view as a layman, we needed the medical terminology either to be explained in the text or with footnotes. I got bored stopping and Googling the terms after a while. On two occasions I was reading the book in the middle of the night after yet another bout of allergic rhinitis-induced insomnia, so both my phone and laptop were switched off and not at hand to look up all the jargon, so I’d plough on semi-blindly. Incidentally, on both of those occasions, when I went back to bed I had Holocaust-themed nightmares. Further testament to the quality of the writing!
Anyway, don’t let that put you off: Just buy and read the book, seriously. You’ll be missing out big time if you don’t. The merits vastly outweigh the (perceived) negatives. I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say “Broken Oaths” is a modern masterpiece. Well done Norm. Now what else has he written, I wonder? That could be an easy answer to the question of “Now what book shall I read next?”
August 3, 2021
First of all I want to offer full disclosure. The author is a dear friend of mine and we grew up together in the same street and if you read ‘Broken Oaths’ you will notice that the book is actually dedicated to John which is, yes you’ve guessed it - me. So, can I be completely impartial in my review? Probably not but I will do my best to be as honest and fair as possible.
Mounter has a flair for writing which as far as I am concerned he has always possessed. On one level ‘Broken Oaths’ is a flow of consciousness from the author brewed up by a vast amount of research that he clearly has made on the subjects of the Holocaust, Nazism and its ties with the field of medicine.
In his research before a novel was ever even contemplated the author had read vast amounts of first hand accounts from diary entries written by some of the people who were forced to endure the terrors of the time. The question that nagged Mounter and he admits continues to nag him, is how doctors, nurses and other members of the medical field could not only allow but in many cases be directly involved with this darkest of dark periods in history.
Having known the author for most of my life, and knowing that he is a Histopathologist many of the central themes of the book just pull together his main interests which are medicine, literature and history. A central character in the story for example, Sarkany is a Jewish pathologist who finds himself in the unenviable position of working under the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. He aids Mengele through the postmortem analysis of camp victims in helping the Nazis prove their theories on eugenics that somehow on a genetic level such persecuted groups, the Jews, gypsies and others are somehow degenerative at a gene level and should be wiped out for the good of mankind. The title, ‘Broken Oaths,’ in part refers to how the Hyppocratic Oath was so flagrantly shattered by so many.
Another central theme of the novel is the relationship between Sarkany and his wife Eva. The reader will discover that the Hyppocratic oath is not the only oath which is being desecrated.
In short, ‘Broken Oaths’ is a dark, compelling work of historical fiction where the reader will find themselves enveloped in the obscene drama. Whether it be comedy as in his first published novel (Bitching Bits of Bone) or grave history Mounter has a distinct flair for the dark. The reader will experience a highly original and enthralling experience written with an effervescent style of writing.
Mounter has a flair for writing which as far as I am concerned he has always possessed. On one level ‘Broken Oaths’ is a flow of consciousness from the author brewed up by a vast amount of research that he clearly has made on the subjects of the Holocaust, Nazism and its ties with the field of medicine.
In his research before a novel was ever even contemplated the author had read vast amounts of first hand accounts from diary entries written by some of the people who were forced to endure the terrors of the time. The question that nagged Mounter and he admits continues to nag him, is how doctors, nurses and other members of the medical field could not only allow but in many cases be directly involved with this darkest of dark periods in history.
Having known the author for most of my life, and knowing that he is a Histopathologist many of the central themes of the book just pull together his main interests which are medicine, literature and history. A central character in the story for example, Sarkany is a Jewish pathologist who finds himself in the unenviable position of working under the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. He aids Mengele through the postmortem analysis of camp victims in helping the Nazis prove their theories on eugenics that somehow on a genetic level such persecuted groups, the Jews, gypsies and others are somehow degenerative at a gene level and should be wiped out for the good of mankind. The title, ‘Broken Oaths,’ in part refers to how the Hyppocratic Oath was so flagrantly shattered by so many.
Another central theme of the novel is the relationship between Sarkany and his wife Eva. The reader will discover that the Hyppocratic oath is not the only oath which is being desecrated.
In short, ‘Broken Oaths’ is a dark, compelling work of historical fiction where the reader will find themselves enveloped in the obscene drama. Whether it be comedy as in his first published novel (Bitching Bits of Bone) or grave history Mounter has a distinct flair for the dark. The reader will experience a highly original and enthralling experience written with an effervescent style of writing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews