In 1982, my dad, Leonard Gross, published what I’ve always felt was his best book. The Last Jews in Berlin interweaves the real-life stories of a handful of Jews who hid in Berlin throughout WWII and lived to tell the tale. The book was heralded by critics at the time:
- “The author’s skillful selection of detail and his narrative drive have created the type of footnote to history that illuminates an entire subject.” – New York Times Book Review
- “A tour de force . . . A consummately suspenseful narrative . . . remindful, in its exquisite detail, of Capote’s In Cold Blood” – Los Angeles Times
- “An historian’s book, a storyteller’s book, and – most of all – a reader’s book . . . All the real-life stuff of a John le Carre novel” – Los Angeles Herald Examiner
Despite rave reviews, it did not become the bestseller I’ve always thought it should be. Until now.
This Sunday, 34 years after its original publication, The Last Jews in Berlin, which was published as an ebook just last year, will be #4 on the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction ebooks. I’m so proud and so happy and so sad that he didn’t live to see this. Happy Valentines Day, my lovely Popsie. I miss you.
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