WWII setting

The premise of Finding Rebecca and its WWII setting really appealed to me, and I was looking forward to reading it. However, I have found in the past that novels set in WWII, especially concerning the holocaust, rely hugely on the ability of the author to get the reader to connect with the characters to create a believable narrative set in an era that has been so extensively documented. There were two moments in the book where I felt a genuine emotional reaction - the times when Christopher had his back against the wall, feeling that all his efforts had come to nothing. For the rest of the book I really struggled to feel connected to any of the characters, who at times were rather wooden and bland, with their alleged love for each other and lust for life not communicated adequately. Despite some genuinely interesting historical details, I thought that some of the events described were extremely unlikely, given the circumstances at Auschwitz. So whilst parts of the book were intriguing and kept me reading on, I struggled with others, like the long prelude of Christopher and Rebecca's childhood, which didn't add much to the story. The ending was long-winded, repeating the same things over several times, and finally losing any emotional connection I might have felt. Overall, an ok read, but not a memorable one for me.

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