A Small Country about to Vanish

Excerpt from chapter 30: "This is what Zyklon B did to their lungs, I was thinking as I ran away from Rona’s room, from her love and her life. I was crying, coughing, gagging and imagining the gas chambers to have smelled much the same. Imagining their nakedness to have felt the same."

This book almost reads itself, so sure-footed is the pacing, the ease of being drawn in despite some unease about what is written; I admire the way the author does not intrude on her characters (and thus her readers) with the pointed finger of too much message forcibly delivered. A reader's ease and ability to identify with each main character is to have witnessed Avilan's magic literary show.

As a reader, one leans into this character or that one, or all of them, as readily as one turns the pages. One of the hallmarks of a well-designed and well-written story, for me, is whether the characters stay with me long after the book is done. Do they ever! Read this book at your own peril and your own pleasure because it will make you feel. And you will remember the people from A Small Country About to Vanish."

By Historical Romance author T. T. Thomas.