27th January 1945; the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Vistula-Oder Offensive. By then, more than a million people had been murdered there, and though most of the surviving prisoners were forced onto a death march by the retreating Nazis, about 7,000 had been left behind. The date is observed now as […]
The Angry Hills is Leon Uris’ second novel, coming on the heels of his much-appreciated Battle Cry. As with most of his books, this too has a personal connection; his uncle – a Jewish Pioneer who migrated to Palestine – was a soldier in the Palestinian Brigade, part of the British Expeditionary Forces in Greece […]
Leon Uris is my literary equivalent of comfort food – I find myself going back to his familiar pages after every 7-8 books. It also helps that most of his books take place in the era I am interested in, so it’s like visiting my favourite place all over again. The book I revisited this […]
As far as historic fiction goes, Mila 18 is for me THE definitive book in the genre. The story is based on a real-life incident (the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943) and is the only book where I as a reader identify with not one but two characters, with both of them ideologically on opposing […]
Battle Cry holds a special place in my heart. It was the first book I ever read from the Historic Fiction genre and has been instrumental in shaping my love and interest in it. I was then studying World War 2 in my History lessons, and the name Leon Uris kept popping up when my […]
War Crows 