Product Description

What should you do if the world has turned against you? When Father Anselm is asked this question by an old man at Larkwood Priory, his response, to claim sanctuary, is to have greater resonance than he could ever have imagined. For that evening the old man returns, demanding the protection of the church. His name is Eduard Schwermann and he is wanted by the police as a suspected war criminal. With her life running out, Agnes Aubret feels it is time to unburden to her granddaughter Lucy the secrets she has been carrying for so long. Fifty years earlier, Agnes had been living in Occupied Paris, a member of a small group risking their lives to smuggle Jewish children to safety - until they were exposed by a young SS Officer: Eduard Schwermann. As Anselm attempts to uncover Schwermann's past, and as Lucy's search into her grandmother's history continues, their investigations dovetail to reveal a remarkable story. 'Brodrick keeps the story going at a cracking pace, flitting back and forth between its various elements, characters and eras with timing so expert the reader is compelled to keep turning the pages' Time Out

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13513 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'Worthy of le Carre at his best' Allan Massie, Scotsman 'Wonderful - the engrossing essence of this novel is the morality of the individual' Gitta Sereny, Times 'Such a combination of narrative mastery, psychological insight and moral vision suggests a John le Carre in the making' Francis King, Telegraph "It is a wonderful book, it has a timeless quality and really should go on to become a classic. It reminds me of the early works of John le Carre, but captures much more accurately the internal workings of ordinary people, and shows how, just by bumping into each other, they can be utterly transformed, and go on to extraordinarily brave and cowardly acts. It pointed out so well how the threads of those small day by day choices made by us, or for us, become intertwined and grow so quickly into the great net that, with hindsight, we call history...one of the most interesting writers I have come across in a long time" - Paul Britton, author of The Jigsaw Man "The Sixth Lamentation is a meticulously-plotted, cat's cradle of a mystery with the interwoven stories pulled as taut as a piano-wire. The setting of Paris during the war is invoked to chilling effect. William Brodrick has written the first of what I hope will be a series of especially literate thrillers" - Martha Grimes "It's indeed rare to find such a masterful blending of sharp suspense and literary resonance as we see in The Sixth Lamentation. Brodrick has produced a truly compelling novel" - Jeffery Deaver, author of The Vanished Man and The Stone Monkey 'Absorbing and unusually accomplished...The plot has a complexity worthy of le Carre at his best, ingeniously worked out, and surprising... It has the merits of a work of art, whatever its provenance: a remarkable first novel' - Allan Massie, The Scotsman 'The characters are multi-layered and compelling, the storyline is gripping, the facts have a ring of truth to them, and more importantly, the book will remain with you after the reading is completed' -Historical Novels Review

John Dugdale, Sunday Times
'This is a remarkable novel, and puts Brodrick in the frame for prize-winning'

Independent on Sunday
'A gripping thriller'

Customer Reviews

Effortlessly readable story of an unbearable history
The Holocaust has never lost its capacity to make readers catch their breath and wince. Rarely has its story been told in such a personable, approachable way yet with such artistry. It's like watching Eastenders but having a poem recited over the top. Sometimes an author can alienate their readers by exquisite prose, but Broderick's book is a delight from start to finish.

The main story is that of Father Anselm, who gets a shock when a man accused of war atrocities rolls up in his monastery claiming Sanctuary. At the same time, a young woman is growing closer to her grandmother who suffers the dreadful demise of motor neurone disease. As one woman fades into the darkness, a hidden man comes into light - and with it history is stripped bare. The horrors of the Holocaust are never skimped over. Broderick doesn't want to protect his reader, nor let the subplots of love, friendship and family allow you to forget why the whole situation came about.

The twists and turns of this story are delicately crafted and catch the reader out. The characters are beautifully formed and the story drawn out. This book is unputdownable and unforgettable. I challenge you to read it without your eyes filling.

Truly brilliant
The Sixth Lamentation is a wonderful book that all fans of literature should read. A former German SS officer, Schwermann, claims sanctuary at a monastery as the police are looking to charge him with war crimes. One of the monks, Father Anselm, sets out to locate Schwerman's collaborator, Victor Brionne. At the same time the Lucy, grandaughter of one of Schwerman's victims is also searching for Brionne, and the truth behind who betrayed the smuggling ring her grandmother was involved in, The Round Table.

The two sides of this story are excellently blended to reveal the truth behind The Round Table and what became of it's members. Broderick creates suspense throughout the novel brilliantly, and there are many twists and turns that quite often left me shocked and suprised. The characters are wonderfully drawn. Many books discussing Holocaust subject matter portray one side as good to the point of being perfect, and the other side as evil. Broderick resists this temptation and instead produces a set of very human characters with human failings. This makes the story all the more believeable and moving.

The book is very revealing about life in occupied Paris and the effects that the Holocaust had on the survivors. It is also strong in presenting the effects of motor neurone syndrome, the disease afflicting Lucy's grandma. Broderick seems to have done his research well, and the resultant story is extremely moving. He also knows his stuff about religious life and thus presents the lives of the monks involved in the story very well. I would not want anyone to be put off by the religious aspects of this books - it merely contributes to the power of the story and certainly does not make the book heavy reading.

Overall this is a wonderful book. The story is brilliantly told and will keep you guessing and fascinated to the end. It is well paced and never boring or tedious at all. The characters are appealing and very human. Most of all, the book is very moving and, particularly for those of us too young to have experienced the war, gives a real sense of the horror and fear of the Holocaust. Please, please read this - a modern classic.

Gripping and full of surprises
This is an excellent first novel with a tightly plotted theme which leads the reader on through a labyrinth of courage, love, fanaticism and betrayal, but which always holds the light of hope just out of reach. The reader is led on and on, caught up in the unforseen events that cast an innocent woman as a villain and the plight of her children as heart-rending casualties of war. The characters take their places on an ever-shifting stage and one is newver quite sure of where the firm ground lies.
And just when you think you have everything mapped out, the final twist throws it all in the air again and makes you reassess the whole story. I began it again as soon as I finished it to pick up the intricacies that the ending threw new light upon. Brilliant - let's have more from this author!