A View Across the Rooftops book review

A View Across the Rooftops by Suzanne Kelman
on October 25, 2019
Goodreads

An unforgettable story of love, hope and betrayal, and a testament to the courage of humanity in history’s darkest days.
As Nazis occupy his beloved city, Professor Josef Held feels helpless. So when he discovers his former pupil Michael Blum is trying to escape the Gestapo, he offers Michael a place to hide in his attic.
In the quiet gloom of the secret room, Michael talks of his beautiful, fearless girlfriend, Elke. Michael insists that not even the Nazis will come between them. But Elke is a non-Jewish Dutch girl, and their relationship is strictly forbidden.
Josef sees the passionate determination in his young friend’s eyes. Furious with the rules of the cruel German soldiers and remembering his own heartbreak, Josef feels desperate to give Michael and Elke’s love a chance. But then tragedy strikes, and Josef is faced with an impossible choice.
In the dark days of war, with danger and betrayal at every turn, no-one can be trusted. If Michael is to survive and get back to the woman he loves, it will be down to Josef – to find the hero inside himself, and do whatever it takes to keep Michael alive.
Even if it means putting his own life in mortal danger.
A heartbreakingly beautiful story about courage against the odds, perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, All The Light We Cannot See, and The Nightingale.

I don’t think this has been my year for historical fiction, first the nightmare that was Nineteen Steps and now A View Across the Rooftops. It’s a little unfair of me to compare the two, because this was inherently bad, I just think it missed the mark. There was so much that could have been done and focused on and instead it felt jumpy and incohesive.

Plot of A View Across the Rooftops

I love a good WWII novel, in fact when they are done well I could read them all day, unfortunately A View Across the Rooftops felt amateurish to me. We follow a range of different people in Occupied Amsterdam as they try to survive the Nazi regime and the hardships that come with that. The issue I had was that there were a lot of different plots and subplots and none of them were really delved into with too much detail. It made getting involved in the story all the more difficult and it felt as though Kelman literally threw ALL the research she had at one story and looking at it there was enough for them to each be their own story.

I never felt as though I was truly involved in the story or the characters, as soon as we would start getting involved in their something would happen and we would jump to someone else. I wish there had been more time spent on each of them even if it had meant that the book was a little longer. There was just a something missing that connected all of the events happening which was a shame because some of it was really interesting.

One thing I really enjoyed was the varying points of view especially surrounding the Dutch and the niece. I thought watching her try and integrate into the German’s way of life was a really unique way of telling a different story. Overall I thought the subject matter was really interesting just disjointed in a jarring way.

Characters in A View Across the Rooftops

The characters had such potential all the way through A View Across the Rooftops and I was constantly waiting for them to find their moments to shine. I would have loved for all the events to have been dialed back a little and for more focus on the relationships and the people involved. There was a lot introduced and I don’t think we ever got past the superficial and it was a shame because there could have been some really deep moments.

The main characters Michael and Josef were supposed to be the focus of the story but there was nothing to draw me into their friendship. Every time we got close to getting more interaction between the two it almost faded to black and when we came back they were closer. I really wanted to see this friendship bloom through something other than circumstance. Plus the friendship between Josef and Hannah was forced all the way through the plot and there was nothing there, it was painful to read about at times.

One character I thought could have saved the story was Ingrid and her love story. It was a really gritty look at the world they were living in which is something that the other stories were missing at times. Watching her try to build a life with the invading force was both devastating and understandable. It was a brilliant idea but again the execution was lacking.

Bad bits

• Poor execution of the plot, world and character building
• Disjointed reading experience
• Too much going on and superficial

Good bits

• Quick and easy reading
• Interesting time of history and unique points of view

Who would like A View Across the Rooftops?

I think if you’re looking for something easy to read, want WWII drama without the darker elements then this would be for you. I would definitely recommend The Alice Network instead though, or Code Name Verity, all of which deal with this time frame in a better way.

Have you read this one? What were your thoughts? Let me know!