Book Review: Karolina’s Twins by Ronald H. Balson

About:
Karolina’s Twins by Ronald H. Balson is a novel which takes place in current day America, told in flashbacks to World War II, Europe.

• 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1250098378

My rat­ing for Karolina’s Twins  — 4
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Thoughts:
World War II seems to provide endless tales of hope and misery. History books capture the “what”, “where”, “when”, and “how”, while fictional books capture the “why” and highlight empathy to a dedicated audience.

Karolina’s Twins by Ronald H. Balson tries real hard to be a tear jerker, it worked on my wife but no on me. Maybe I read too much non-fiction and shed my tears there, people who made decisions which, in today’s comfortable American world, I could not even imagine. The book is part legal thriller, part Holocaust account. Most of the novel takes place at a law office, in which the main character recounts her harrowing tale from World War II.

I enjoyed the book because it seems to be one of those ideas that are so far-fetched, but isn’t. The story, the author tells us, is loosely based on tale he heard from a Holocaust survivor he met while working on his previous book while doing research across Europe and at Yad-Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum.

In telling this story, Mr. Balson manages to put forth the feeling of despair, hopelessness and degradations which comes from the Nazi takeover of Poland. The feeling of proud, hard-working persons being designated as non-citizens and even as non-humans.

Karolina’s Twins is a sad book, an enticing legal thriller but one that gives us a glimmer of hope at the end.

Synopsis:
Lena Scheinman Woodward walks into the office of attorney Catherine Lockhart and private investigator Liam Taggart telling them an unbelievable story which even they find hard to have faith in. Lena talks of Nazi occupied Poland and her friend Karolina, a beautiful and charismatic girl. Together Lena and Karolina try to survive the war and now Lena is trying to find Karolina’s daughters.

Arthur, Lena’s son, afraid that his mother is being taken for a ride by unscrupulous lawyers, they are trying to fleece her for as much as they can. Worrying about her mental state being, and his inheritance, Arthur sues his mother and her lawyers for custody.

Buy Karolina’s Twins from Amazon.com*
More Books by Ronald H. Balson
Check out this & more World War II books on Man of la BookStore

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book at the local library
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account