Sidewise Award winner 2002.
Typically, alternate history/universe novels offer a relatively happy
version of history: what if Babbage had been able to perfect his
difference engine and make computers readily available in Victorian
England? What if Texas had declared itself a nation under Sam Houston?
This novel, too, offers such a delightful excursion — momentarily. For
the novel’s premise — that World War I ended much sooner, thereby
avoiding the harsh Versailles Treaty, which thereby avoided the rise of
Nazi Germany and its Holocaust — is fated to be only a temporary vision
in young Janusz Spiegelman’s mind. The world Janusz inhabits is one
that might have been, had millions of Jews not perished, one that would
have been filled with their progeny. But this world is disappearing; it
is daily returning to the grim reality of the Holocaust. In grim proof,
every day in Janusz’s life sees more of his Jewish co-workers, friends,
and acquaintances disappear; more Jewish establishments
disappear — vanish completely. As we share Janusz’s harrowing, surreal
experience, we are once more reminded of the vastness of the Holocaust.
