A View Across the Rooftops by Suzanne Kelman

A View Across the Rooftops is written by Suzanne Kelman and was published in 2019. It is a historical novel set in Amsterdam during the second World War. 

This is a story about how a professor helped his student hide from the Nazis who occupied their city. Professor Josef Held who has lived alone since his wife passed away takes his Jewish student as a refugee in his own home. Distressed by the feeling of captivity in his own city, Josef struggles to adjust to having company again after a long time and at the same time trying to heal from old wounds to be able to be genuine with how he feels.

 

The book is emotionally captivating and even though there are times when the story paces a little slower, it still grips you enough to keep going and to hope for a happy ending for everyone. It constantly breaks your heart, makes you hopeful and happy. It's one of those books that's really hard to put down.

Although taking Michael in was not an easy decision for Josef, his humanity still is the best of him and he hid Michael away in his attic to be safe from the Nazis. Josef eventually went to great lengths to make life easier for his student and even to the point of endangering his own. He was not used to having someone around and I think that's probably one of the most difficult adjustment for him especially in the middle of a war.

The friendship between Josef and Michael is the most unlikely to develop in regular situations, but their city's captivity under the Nazis brought them together. Their personalities conflict more often than not. However, the necessity to keep each other alive reconciles them naturally. Their friendship is a reflection of being at the right place, at the right time with the right people. 

The book has a lot of interesting storylines. We have Josef's niece Ingrid who fell in love with the enemy and how she struggled to survive making one wrong decision after another. We also see how Josef learned to heal from the pain of losing the love of his life and to feel things again despite the situation he was in. Then we have the story of one little girl who understood so little, yet still felt the pain of losing everything she once had. 

All these storylines were pieced beautifully together by the author to give us one whole story that is sure to give the reader's heart a little ache but a whole lot of faith that in the end and that although we might lose sometimes, it's all going to work out alright.

I think this book is worth the read even for the new readers. If you want to read about how these different kinds thrived and survived in the darkest of the nights, this might be a good book for you.