The Deceptions
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4.5 • 10 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Moving from wartime Europe to modern day Australia, The Deceptions is a powerful story of old transgressions, unexpected revelations and the legacy of lives built on lies and deceit.
Prague, 1943. Taken from her home in Prague, Hana Lederova finds herself imprisoned in the Jewish ghetto of Theresienstadt, where she is forced to endure appalling deprivation and the imminent threat of transportation to the east. When she attracts the attention of the Czech gendarme who becomes her guard, Hana reluctantly accepts his advances, hoping for the protection she so desperately needs.
Sydney, 2010. Manipulated into a liaison with her married boss, Tessa knows she needs to end it, but how? Tessa's grandmother, Irena, also has something to hide. Harkening back to the Second World War, hers is a carefully kept secret that, if revealed, would send shockwaves well beyond her own fractured family.
Inspired by a true story of wartime betrayal, The Deceptions is a searing, compassionate tale of love and duplicity-and family secrets better left buried.
'The Deceptions is a stunning example of the way fiction tells war better than any other form - I could taste its madness, its horror. Saw from the outside, its utter absurdity. For days after reading the novel I found myself wrestling with the price of betrayal, and the value of truth.' - Sofie Laguna, winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award
'At what cost can a survivor of hell rebuild a seemingly normal life? The Deceptions is a gripping and tragic story for our times.' - Leah Kaminsky, author of The Hollow Bones
'Impossible to put down. Leal is a master storyteller. Mesmerising, heartbreaking, honest-The Deceptions is ferociously good.' - Nikki Gemmell, author of After
'Those who grew up in the shadow of the Second World War had Elie Wiesel's Night to define for them the enormity for the Holocaust. Those who were born later can now rely upon Suzanne Leal's brilliant and confronting novel The Deceptions to open their eyes to the true horrors of Nazism.' - Alan Gold, author of Bloodline
Customer Reviews
What goes around...
4.5 stars
Author
Australian lawyer turned novelist, interviewer and presenter at literary events and festivals, judge for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and director of Sydney Crime Writers Festival. Her legal background includes child protection and refugee law. This is her third novel following Border Street (2006) and The Teacher's Secret (2016).
Precis
Set in Prague 1943 and Sydney 2010. Czech Jewish girl from middle class family butters up local who is a guard at the ghetto, hoping he'll stop her being sent to Auschwitz like her parents. He doesn't. She survives and moves to England. We meet her again as an octogenarian widow looking back. Meanwhile, the former guard lives with his wife of 70 years and tends his garden downunder. Other family members have secrets too, and the tenuous connection between the two protagonists finally emerges at a wedding. There's plenty at work here: adultery, secrets and guilt, dementia and political refugees to name but a few.
Writing
Ms Leal writes the hell out of this. Her style continues to evolve, and this is her best work yet IMHO. Crisp spare prose interspersed with denser passages that draw you in. There are no stereotypical characters either. All except perhaps the female minister are well developed; all have their strengths and weaknesses and feel decidedly human.
Bottom line
Thought-provoking. Just when you think Holocaust fiction has been done to death (sorry), Ms Leal comes up with a unique, well written, take on it. My only criticism is that she tried to cram too much in.