Another Winner by Chris Bohjalian

Last summer, I read Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian and it is a book that I absolutely enjoyed. It's been a treat to have people at work read it and tell me about the book, since I know that when they get to the end, it's a shocker. You sit there and ask, what did I miss?

This past week, I read Bohjalian's newest book, Skeletons at the Feast. I wanted to read it, because of how much I admire his storytelling skills. The book takes place in Nazi Germany during the last year of the war. I have read so many books about the same time period, that I thought what more could I learn.? Yet once into the book, with the weaving of the lives of different classes of people of different religious backgrounds, I did get involved.

Reading is all about making connections and in this story, each character's development made me think about how I would feel or react in similar situations. Of course there were some sad moments in the book, after all it's about war, Nazis and the treatment of the Jewish people. Deeper into the story, character's initial beliefs are changed by those around them.

This is not a chick lit beach book, but a book that I would recommend for a thoughtful summer read. Chris Bohjalian remains one of my favorite novelists who really knows how to write a great ending. Isn't it always the endings that we remember? (Even when you finish the book at 2 am on a Wednesday night, sssh, don't tell my husband!)