Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture, and author Catherine Hokin for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

There are so many different stories that came out of World War II that it’s impossible to comprehend all of theatrocities that the Nazi Party was responsible for. In many cases, following the end of the War, those who perpetrated the atrocities did their best to tone down their involvement. The Train That Took You Away focuses on how Nazi Party Leaders sought to enrich themselves by stealing art from all over Europe. This is set against the backdrop of a Jewish mother who sends her son to England as a safety measure and then must hunt for him after the War.

In Germany in the 1930s, Esther Spielmann is a reknown art gallery owner. Since the Nazis came to power, she’s been trying to tread a line and keep herself unnoticed, but eventually they arrive at her gallery. They deem some of the art as degenerate, particularly any art made by a Jewish artist. The rest they tag to go into Nazi collections.

Esther’s family is quite wealthy. Her father owns a bank, and her husband is employed there. Even their wealth cannot protect them. Her father and husband are disappeared and murdered during Kristallnacht. When the opportunity comes up to send her eight-year-old son, Sascha, to England, Esther reluctantly sends him. She is now alone in Berlin, unable to escape, as the Nazis take everything from her.

Amalie is a British woman who was working at Berlin’s National Gallery when the Nazis came to power. She has no love for them, but tries to go along to get along to preserve being able to do the art restoration work she loves, as well as protect some valuable art from getting into Nazi hands or being destroyed. Bold and outspoken, she tries to stop a woman from being burned alive during Kristallnacht and is deported back to England by the Nazis. Eventually, she becomes part of The Monuments Men team which follows the soldiers fighting the Nazis after D-Day. They attempt to find, catalogue, and seize the artwork the Nazis have hidden away.

The lives of Amalie and Esther collide after the war. Can Amalie help Esther find her son? Can both of them dodge Nazi war criminals still walking the streets of Berlin?

I have to admit this was a difficult read for me. So much of the detail in how the Nazis dehumanized the Jewish citizens is a carbon copy of the rhetoric I’ve been hearing from my fellow countrymen in regard to “illegals” and the like. Yes, the United States is 1930s Germany right now, and it breaks my heart to say that. While reading The Train That Took You Away, I could substitute illegals, Hispanics, minorities, gays, transsexuals…. just every group that we see being talked about as if they are something less than human because of… reasons. I would swear Catherine Hokin was taking the words right off of Faux News if I didn’t know that this was what happened to the Jewish citizens in Germany and all of Europe back then.

The book is well done. I had a hard time seeing how Amalie and Esther’s stories would connect until they did and it made sense. The author doesn’t dwell too much on what happens during the war, which is fine. There have been numerous books personalizing the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis. Instead it focuses on the time before and after the war. Reading what life was like for Jews is Germany in the 1930s hits very close to home for any American with an open enough mind to see it. The details of what Esther’s life was like and what she went through are hard to digest at times. She adapts to what is thrown at her, but it takes something from her each time. She evolves as a person to someone quite different than who we met at the beginning,

Amalie, too, is forced to change by the War, but not in the same way. She’s had a narrow perspective in life, as is shown by how she perceives the danger of staying in Germany prior to her being deported. Her parents urging her to leave frustrate her, rather than being words of caution. In a sense, she’s in a bubble and she continues that way until she meets Esther and reconnects with an artist she knew. Both women are compelling characters.

The Train That Took You Away was a great book that was startling relevant right now. I liked that there was a different angle to what happened, and there was more focus on life before and after the war than during it.