The Sixth Lamentation (Paperback)

The main story is that of Father Anselm, who gets a shock when a man accused of war atrocities rolls up in his monastery claiming Sanctuary. At the same time, a young woman is growing closer to her grandmother who suffers the dreadful demise of motor neurone disease. As one woman fades into the darkness, a hidden man comes into light - and with it history is stripped bare. The horrors of the Holocaust are never skimped over. Broderick doesn't want to protect his reader, nor let the subplots of love, friendship and family allow you to forget why the whole situation came about.

The twists and turns of this story are delicately crafted and catch the reader out. The characters are beautifully formed and the story drawn out. This book is unputdownable and unforgettable. I challenge you to read it without your eyes filling.

The two sides of this story are excellently blended to reveal the truth behind The Round Table and what became of it's members. Broderick creates suspense throughout the novel brilliantly, and there are many twists and turns that quite often left me shocked and suprised. The characters are wonderfully drawn. Many books discussing Holocaust subject matter portray one side as good to the point of being perfect, and the other side as evil. Broderick resists this temptation and instead produces a set of very human characters with human failings. This makes the story all the more believeable and moving.

The book is very revealing about life in occupied Paris and the effects that the Holocaust had on the survivors. It is also strong in presenting the effects of motor neurone syndrome, the disease afflicting Lucy's grandma. Broderick seems to have done his research well, and the resultant story is extremely moving. He also knows his stuff about religious life and thus presents the lives of the monks involved in the story very well. I would not want anyone to be put off by the religious aspects of this books - it merely contributes to the power of the story and certainly does not make the book heavy reading.

Overall this is a wonderful book. The story is brilliantly told and will keep you guessing and fascinated to the end. It is well paced and never boring or tedious at all. The characters are appealing and very human. Most of all, the book is very moving and, particularly for those of us too young to have experienced the war, gives a real sense of the horror and fear of the Holocaust. Please, please read this - a modern classic.

The book opens with an elderly man going to a moastery to ask what you should do if the world turns against you. He is answered by being told that a person could claim the right to sanctuary; an ancient right from the Church.
This man, Edward Schwermann, therefore returns and demands just what he has been told about. It then comes to light that he was an SS Officer, and he is wanted for war crimes.
Interjected with this story is the story of Agnes, an elderly lady who used to live in Occupied Paris during the war, and who helped smuggle Jewsih children out of the country. Agnes is now a lady approaching the end of her days, succumbing to the demise of her body through Motor Neurone Disease.
As the book progresses, Agnes decides that her granddaughter, Lucy, should learn more about her ealier life during the war. Lucy then attempts to learn the truth of the past - a past that is now claiming sanctuary at a monastery in England.
Schwermann and Agnes's past intertwines and because of his trial it is thrown back into the conciousness of the present day.

Sounds great; loads of opportunity for questions about morality, ethics, legality, guilt and redemption to abound. And although these questions are examined, I don't think they are done so in a completely satisfactory way. Perhaps Brodrick is trying for too much - questions relating to the Church are of course also involved as it transpires that the Church helped a suspected war criminal. I don't think all of the characters are fully developed. To me, personally, Schwermann was too elusive - for a principal character, I think he was too overlooked in prose and dialogue, leaving me unable to come to any decisions about just how guilty he was.
Personally, for myself, a far better read in a similar subject matter is Bernard Schlink's THE READER, which is just brilliant.