One of the last things her grandfather did was give Natalie a necklace and ask her to find the owner and return it.  He had acquired the rather remarkable necklace with the peacock design during the war in 1945 and Natalie, currently in the throes of leaving a disastrous relationship, needs a distraction and a purpose and so she decides to honor her grandfather’s last wishes.  Natalie contacts an Amitai, an art dealer specializing in returning valuable pieces to their rightful owners and after uncovering a photograph showing a young woman wearing the necklace, they are soon caught up in the shadowy world of lost art and treasure owned by European Jews, looted by the Nazis and then lost in the chaos of war.

In fact, Jack Wiseman, Natalie’s grandfather had been assigned to guard and then catalogue a train load of just that kind of  loot which was retaken from the Nazi’s by the Allies. Jack, a sergeant and highly regarded interpreter, is tasked with cataloguing the silver candlesticks, watches, dishes, paintings and jewelry that are found on the train. As he goes about his task he wonders how these treasures will ever be returned to their owners when so many of them have been exterminated in the camps that the Allies have been slowly liberating across Europe.

Waldman shifts the story from WWII to the present and then to a time preceding the war to tell this story, which although a bit jarring at times, allows us the benefit of hearing from each character their part of the story. Based on the historical Hungarian Gold Train found by the Allies during WWII, Waldman raises important questions about the inherent value of things, the difficulty of reparations after the war and the incalculable loss suffered by so many at the hand of the Nazis.

Brenda’s Rating ***1/2 (3 1/2 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Marian, Sharon and Keith

Books Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.