Rembrandt's Shadow Paperback – September 20, 2016 by Janet Lee Berg (Post Hill Press)

This sensitive, engaging novel is a lovely and quite serious read. It tells the stories of two women—of Sylvie, the indulged daughter of a prominent wealthy art collector in Holland, whose world and life is shattered and irremediably changed by the Nazis, and, thirty years later, of Angela,who also has had tragedy and loss in her background. Their stories are beautifully intertwined as they come to terms with their histories, their present-day selves, and each other.

This novel is based on fact and fits in with the genre of World War II novels and memoirs---All the Light You Cannot See, Sarah's Key, and A World Elsewhere come most readily to mind—that document the Holocaust up close, through the experiences of individuals. The atrocities and affronts that took place during the Holocaust should never, I believe, be forgotten, and literature is one way of making sure that they will be remembered. 1940-42 were years when people were driven to extraordinary acts of desperation, and that Rembrandt's Shadow is based on fact—on the author's husband's family history---makes it especially convincing and important.

Janet Lee Berg has deftly and superbly combined fiction and history. I recommend Rembrandt's Shadow highly.