The Vienna Writers Circle, Maetis - B

                     This novel is set in Austria's capital just after the Anschluss. The most compelling aspect of the book is its ability to portray the anxiety, stress and fear that takes over the Jewish population. Johannes and Mathias are cousins, both married to Catholics and both working as writers. It becomes increasingly clear that something must be done as the noose tightens. They opt to change their identities and move to different parts of the city. Their social interactions become severely proscribed and life returns to some sense of normalcy. The outbreak of war has little effect on Vienna. But the SS man on the lookout for Jews, Heinrich  Schnabel, is as relentless as Inspector Javert and keeps investigating and pursuing what he believes is a group with false papers. He catches Johannes in 1942. Johannes is sent to Sobibor but a letter he carries from his literary agent saves his life when he begins to help the deputy commandant who had submitted a draft of a novel to the same agent. Schnabel's diligent pursuit eventually leads him to Mathias, who manages to turn the tables on him. And although Mathias is captured by the Gestapo, he uses the money that Schnabel had stolen to negotiate his way to Switzerland. Very few Austrian Jews survived the Holocaust, and the fact that both cousins, their families, and most of their circle live until 1945 strains credulity.