Book Review SUMMONS TO BERLIN Joanne Intrator

Thank you to the author Joanne Intrator, publishers She Writes Press, and BookSparks, for an advance reader copy of SUMMONS TO BERLIN. All opinions are mine.


This book is a very personal account of one Jewish family's separation from their belongings, indeed their very identity, during the modern era's most evil and violent time. The book's author and narrator, Intrator, undertook a quest of epic proportion when, upon hearing her father's deathbed challenge to her to be courageous, she accepted it to mean: she was the one to settle this long unsettled ghost in her family's history. She was the one to reclaim her family's holdings from the beneficiaries of the evil men who stole them. 

SUMMONS TO BERLIN is without a doubt a fascinating story. Reading about some of the red tape Intrator encountered in trying to recover her family's assets made my blood boil! On fellow, who stymied her at every turn, who would not ever give Intrator her due, until she finally used the right bit of leverage against him-- well then he just wanted to be friends and have tea. The nerve! For such reasons, this is a good read, evocative. It's also suspenseful, as Intrator’s efforts are constantly set awry in unexpected and unforeseeable ways. I wondered often what she would do next, as she was once again rebuffed.

Sometimes I don't like rating this sort of nonfiction. This is such a personal topic, and of such power! How can I rate it critically? Im not even sure if it's memoir or exposition. I've given it five stars, but I didn't love it nearly as much as I normally love a book when I rate it that high.

Rating: 🏢🏢🏢🏢🏢 / 5 family buildings
Recommend? Yes
Finished: August 7 2023 
Format: Advance Reader Copy, BookSparks,
         Audiobook, Scrib'd
Read this if you like:
🗣 Memoirs
🕰 Historical fiction 
🪖 WWII history 
💰 Intrigue and corruption 

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