PREPUBLICATION PRAISE
FOR HAMLET’S CHILDREN

 

[BACK COVER]

 

“I couldn’t put down this richly depicted story, full of beautifully defined characters, in which fiction and fact are seamlessly woven together by Richard Kluger. The moral dilemma of the peaceable Danish people under Nazi occupation is seen through the eyes of a sensitive American teenager trapped far from home but sympathetically surrounded by a family of formidable relatives – especially his sexy, courageous guardian angel, Aunt Rikki, whose struggle to defy her country’s conquerors while preserving her honor all but steals the show. Hamlet’s Children deserves to be on everyone’s reading list.”

  – Julianna Margulies, award-winning actress, producer and author of a memoir, Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life

 

“Meticulously researched and strikingly imagined, Hamlet’s Children possesses treasures for a wide range of readers, from history buffs to high school students (teachers take note!). Richard Kluger has created a pitch-perfect 1940s narrator in plucky young Terry Sayre – and the perfect set of eyes and ears for revealing the agonizing choices faced by the Danes during the Second World War. Harrowing and ultimately heart-warming, Hamlet’s Children will keep you turning pages far into the night.”

  – Barbara Quick, novelist, poet, journalist, and the author of Vivaldi’s Virgins and What Disappears 

 

“Hamlet’s Children is a powerful and rousing novel of oppression and defiance in Denmark during World War II. I am particularly taken with how naturally the tale unfolds and the jaunty elegance of the prose. The depiction of the complex relationship between the narrator’s aunt and the German major is superb and worth a book of its own.”

  – R.Z. Sheppard, for many years a book critic at Time magazine  

 

“History vividly brought to life, Hamlet’s Children is an affecttionate but clear-eyed portrait of a Danish family under the Nazi occupation and of the young American relative who finds a risky shelter with them. Kluger captures the day-to-day feel of wartime, the menace, the moral compromises, and the occasional heroism.” 

  – Joseph Kanon, author of The Good German and eight other internationally bestselling novels  

 

“In one small facet of World War II, the reader is drawn into a fully realized sense of that horrific conflict. Hamlet’s Children elegantly combines meticulous attention to the historical record with deft writing and the creation of indelible characters. Through them we see the gathering clouds of war over Denmark, the terror of German occupation, the indomitable spirit of the young American narrator’s anti-Nazi family – but also the ethical and political compromises the captive Danish people were forced to make.”

  – Stanislao G. Pugliese, Hofstra University historian, and author of The Legacy of Primo Levi and a biography of Ignazio Silone  

 

 

[FIRST PAGE]

 

“Hamlet’s Children is superb historical fiction. It illuminates the murky moral terrain that Danes had to navigate under a Nazi occupation that was far less brutal than anywhere else in Europe. But dangers still lurked everywhere, especially for the country’s small Jewish population. Richard Kluger places an American teenager and his Danish family at the center of this drama.” 

  – Andrew Nagorski, author of The Nazi Hunters and Saving Freud  

 

“Kluger’s masterly portrayal of the cruel Nazi occupation of Denmark, told through the eyes of a stranded American teenager, is not only a terrific premise for a coming-of-age story but a searing indictment of national aggression that rings as true as today's headlines.”

  – April Smith, whose seven novels include most recently A Star For Mrs. Blake and Home Sweet Home  

 

“It’s rare enough to find an authentic portrait of an adolescent, especially one who functions in an adult world. Richard Kluger has provided just such a feat in his account of an American teenager trapped in Nazi-occupied Denmark, a story alive with sympathetic characters and propelled by a fascinating narrative.”

  – Joseph E. Illick, professor of history emeritus, San Francisco State University, and author of American Childhoods 

 

“Hamlet’s Children is an absorbing and deeply instructive evocation of Denmark under the Nazi occupation in its crosscurrents of resistance and collaboration. Among the characters the young American protagonist’s Aunt Rikki, a brave, adventurous, and sexy woman, is especially engaging.”

  – Robert Alter, professor of comparative literature at the University of California Berkeley, and author most recently of an acclaimed translation of the Hebrew Bible 

 

“Hamlet’s Children is historical fiction at its best: accurate, surprising and a great, up-all-night read. Richard Kluger succeeds on all counts as he threads a moving family story through the harrowing years of the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Just an extremely well-wrought piece of imaginative work.”

  – Beverly Lowry, author of Deer Creek Drive and Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life 

 

“A coming-of-age story, a war story, a story of personal and national survival – Richard Kluger’s Hamlet’s Children weaves a narrative spell that will draw you in and hold you until it’s done. In this compelling journey into history, the reader is caught up in personal dramas and moral dilemmas, in the fight against evil forces and the insistence on humanity. Light a fire in the hearth, curl up in your favorite chair and settle in for a great read.”

  – Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, novelist and short-story writer, and author of The Dark Path to the River and Burning Distance