It was the beauty of his richly textured remembrances which moved me. Quite oddly, I found the rendition of Josef's life more emotive than Lenka's story tethered as he was in America and bound to lead a life he had little interest in. I never underline passages in a book but here I sincerely wish I had so that I give some examples. With a deft hand, the author uses the riches of the palette to furnish images. This novel is quite light in description but rich in dialogue and it is rendered beautifully with emotional scenery. Alyson Richman leads you through Josef's life in America with the sombre burden of what he has left behind and Lenka's harsh reality with her internment at Terezin. Germany invades Czechoslovakia as expected, the Czech government capitulates and Lenka and her family are sent to the work camp Terezin. Her decision is forced by time, the die is cast, Lenka will stay with her family while her husband Josef will flee with his family to America. The story contains an impossible choice: faced with the encroaching threat of the Nazis, who would you choice – your family or your husband of one day? Two Czechoslovakian Jews, Lenka and Josef face this monumental situation and Lenka's decision is the basis of this novel. And, it has quietly, stealthily crept up on me in the last five hours since I finished it, wending its way into my collective bookish affections. This novel does not abound with all the hearts and flowers of the aforementioned publishers. paradoxically, I loved this novel and it is, essentially, a love story, a story of first love, lost love, remembered love. Let me say first and foremost that I do not read love stories, I loathe books such as those by Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts, I have a specially designed crucifix to guard me against the genre of Mills and Boon. From the comfort of life in Prague before the occupation to the horrors of Nazi Europe, The Lost Wife explores the endurance of first love, the resilience of the human spirit and our capacity to remember. Now, decades later, an unexpected encounter in New York brings Lenka and Josef back together. But in the Nazi ghetto of Terez?n - and later in Auschwitz - Lenka has survived, relying on her skills as an artist and the memories of a husband she believes she will never see again. In America Josef becomes a successful obstetrician and raises a family, though he never forgets the wife he thinks died in the camps. They marry - but soon, like so many others, they are torn apart by the currents of war. Your husband.' During the last moments of calm in prewar Prague, Lenka, a young art student, falls in love with Josef. She looked at him again, as if giving weight and bone to a ghost.

'Do you remember me now?' he asked, trembling. There on her forearm, next to a small brown birthmark, were six tattooed numbers.

The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman