Helen's Book Blog: TLC Book Tour: Nothing is Forgotten by Peter Golden

Title: Nothing is Forgotten
Author: Peter Golden
Year Published: 2018

Genre: Adult fiction

Pages: 327

Rating: 4 out of 5

Location (my 2019 Google Reading map): USA (NJ, CA, GA, SC), Germany, Russia, France, Poland

FTC Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book for an impartial review

Summary (from the inside flap of the book): In late 1950s South Orange, New Jersey, Michael Daniels--or Misha Dainov, as he's referred to by his doting Russian-Jewish grandmother--is at loose ends after high school, until he becomes the host of a nightly underground radio show. Spinning the rock 'n' roll music that is redefining his generation and establishing himself as the "Mad Russian," he feels alive for three hours each night while on the air.

To Michael's surprise, his running satires of USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev make the show a local hit ,while, unbeknownst to him, half a world away, he is picking up loyal listeners in a small Soviet city. There, Yuli Kosoy, a war orphan in her mid-twenties, is smuggling coveted American goods into the country alongside her guardian, a savvy and kindhearted black marketer who found her huddled in the forest after a German attack.

Just as Michael's radio show is taking off, he discovers his grandmother's body in a pool of blood, shot to death in the candy store she had run for years. As Michael tries to figure out what happened, he finds that there is far more to his grandmother's life story than he ever imagined--from secret bank accounts and a connection to Picasso and other artistic giants, to the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp and an entire family lost in the chaos of war. Michael's search for answers will take him to Munich, Paris, the South of France, and into Soviet Russia--where he meets Yuli, whose heartbreaking story connects to hsi own in surprising and important ways.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Review: The summary of this book sounds a bit confusing so I was a bit worried going in. And, I'll be honest, for the first third I wasn't sure. There is a lot of detail about characters, place descriptions, and actions and sometimes it made me lose sense of the story. But, it seems that those details began to taper off as the book progressed or I didn't notice them eventually or they were needed. Either way, it worked!

I liked the second half of the book more than the first half. It's funny, there is a lot going on in this story (KGB, CIA, Holocaust survivors, spies, Nazis, Nazi hunters, and more) and at one point, about half way through, one character tells her story and it explains it all. I thought I didn't like that, but I think it was necessary to bring all the bits together so that the story could proceed.

This book does pain really well. The pain of losing a loved one, the pain of history, the pain of hatred, and the pain of revenge. And, yes, the pain of loving someone. That doesn't mean the book is depressing, it just has really deep feels.

Challenges for which this counts: