Mischling (Konar)

Book Reviews
…Ms. Konar makes the emotional lives of her two spirited narrators piercingly real, as they recount, in alternating chapters, the harrowing story of their efforts to survive…What is most haunting about the novel is Ms. Konar's ability to depict the hell that was Auschwitz, while at the same time capturing the resilience of many prisoners, their ability to hang on to hope and kindness in the face of the most awful suffering—to remain, in [Elie] Wiesel's words, humane "in an inhumane universe."
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times


There is a reason Mengele’s experiments are rarely discussed. Even in the context of the Holocaust, they are almost unspeakably horrible. Konar’s novel takes an unorthodox, though not unprecedented, approach to these horrors: She describes them beautifully, lyrically, in the language of a fable. Mischling is not for everyone, not least because it is excruciating to read about such pain. I do not remember the last time I shed so many tears over a work of fiction. And it will surely offend those who still chafe at the idea of fictionalizing the Holocaust. But readers who allow themselves to fall under the spell of Konar’s exceptionally sensitive writing may well find the book unforgettable.
Ruth Fanklin - New York Times Book Review


In alternating chapters, the girls chronicle their diametrically opposed mechanisms for coping with the horrors they experience.... Konar unveils Mengele’s atrocities gradually and only in glimpses.... It gets much worse before it gets better.... The novel’s second half takes place after the camp’s liberation. Konar constructs a sinuous plot from the chaos of the postwar landscape. The faster pace frees her from the burden of having the children quite so lyrically narrate their own suffering....  Readers will have varying levels of credulity about 12-year-olds, even precocious ones, forming such perceptions while being starved and tortured.
Lisa Zeidner - Washington Post


Konar does not dwell on the horrors, but she does not stint on them either.... But the gruesome plot detail leads to the biggest narrative chance Konar takes: to continue the twins’s story after the liberation of Auschwitz. She follows each to a semi-happy ending in Poland.... That Stasha can express that possibility feels hopeful and extraordinary.... I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to read a happy ending...when, in the balance of history, so many were slaughtered.
Rachel Shtier - Boston Globe


Horrible and beautiful.... It seems a refutation of Theodor Adorno's famous pronouncement that: "After Auschwitz, to write poetry is barbaric." Konar's novel is filled with exquisitely crafted phrases.... Nevertheless, the aesthetic achievement of Mischling cannot redeem the world after Auschwitz. It merely illuminates it, woefully, brilliantly.
Steven G. Kellman - USA Today


(Stared review.) Without sentimentality, Konar’s gripping novel explores the world of the children who were the subjects of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele’s horrifying experiments at Auschwitz.... Konar makes every sentence count; it’s to her credit that the girls never come across as simply victims.... This is a brutally beautiful novel.
Publishers Weekly


(Stared review.) Titled after the pejorative Nazi German word for "mixed blood,"...this searing work deepens our understanding of the Holocaust. It is highly recommended for that reason and for its stunningly original approach to a subject that would be too awful to read about if rendered in straightforward prose.  —Edward B. Cone, New York
Library Journal


(Stared review.) Fiction of rare poignancy—and astonishing hope.... An unforgettable sojourn of the spirit.
Booklist


Konar is clearly most interested in language, in metaphor and invention. Surely, there are readers who will appreciate this. Some, though, might find that the poetry puts too much distance between the reader and the reality of Auschwitz. Konar approaches a difficult subject with artistic ambition.
Kirkus Reviews