Have you read Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson? I can’t begin to tell you how much I love love love this story! It is two stories all meshed together into one tale as the author switches between the story of a man, Ben Solomon and his past in Poland during WWII and his present life in Chicago in 2004. While watching TV one night, Ben see’s a close up of one of Chicago’s most prestigious philanthropists, Elliot Rosenzweig, flash across the screen. This close-up convinces Ben Solomon that Rosenzweig is a former Nazi SS officer named, Otto Piatek. Piatek who is coined the Butcher of Zamosc. He sets out to convince lawyer, Catherine Lockhart, to take on the case as he tries to bring Piatek to justice. With the help of private investigator, Liam Taggart, the trio dives into history unraveling the story of Ben’s life as a Jewish man in Poland during WWII trying to piece the facts together to discover if Ben’s theory is right or if he is just a confused senile old man desperate to seek vengeance regardless of facts.
Once We Were Brothers is a story of a family’s love struggling to persevere in war-torn Poland against the unimaginable cruelty of the Holocaust. Solomon’s two different world’s explode into a race for redemption in a moving tale of survival and the strength and victory of the human spirit. This is one of those story that works it way into your heart and stirs your soul. You can get a copy to read or listen with my affiliate link here. You can also find more of my Book Club recommendations here.
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