Venice 1947. Countess Pesaro De Bonfili is searching for the legitimate heirs of Raffaele and Sylvia Mustaki, a couple who did not survive Nazi camps. She decides to hire the Cantoni, Mendes, Modiano law firm. They find two potential heirs, Sylvia’s brother, Guido, who lives in Boston and their daughter, Leah. Two researchers from the law firm travel to a displaced people camp in Germany to meet Leah Mustaki, a young woman who could be the couple’s daughter but has lost her memory. Leah journeys to Venice, believing that the city holds the key to unlocking her past and revealing her true identity. As Leah arrives at Venice train station, a mysterious figure watches her arrival in disbelief. He has just seen a ghost ...
The law firm also contacted Guido Schwartz in Boston, who informs them that his son, Joshua, is in Vienna with the US Army. He tells them he has written to his son, Joshua, who is in Vienna with the US Army, giving him power of attorney on the matter.
Joshua and Leah present a danger to the mysterious figure who thought he saw a ghost.
Venice 1947. Countess Pesaro De Bonfili is searching for the legitimate heirs of Raffaele and Sylvia Mustaki, a couple who did not survive Nazi camps. She decides to hire the Cantoni, Mendes, Modiano law firm. They find two potential heirs, Sylvia’s brother, Guido, who lives in Boston and their daughter, Leah. Two researchers from the law firm travel to a displaced people camp in Germany to meet Leah Mustaki, a young woman who could be the couple’s daughter but has lost her memory. Leah journeys to Venice, believing that the city holds the key to unlocking her past and revealing her true identity. As Leah arrives at Venice train station, a mysterious figure watches her arrival in disbelief. He has just seen a ghost ...
The law firm also contacted Guido Schwartz in Boston, who informs them that his son, Joshua, is in Vienna with the US Army. He tells them he has written to his son, Joshua, who is in Vienna with the US Army, giving him power of attorney on the matter.
Joshua and Leah present a danger to the mysterious figure who thought he saw a ghost.
Deborah Camerini, Countess Pesaro de Bonfili, was walking back from La Fenice opera house with her childhood friend Fiamma Andrade Mendes, her friend's son Roberto Mendes, and his wife Dina. They had enjoyed the performance, and they were still discussing it. Deborah was pleased to see Fiamma so lively, a rare occurrence since the end of the war. They arrived near her home and it was time to part company. Roberto looked at his wife.
“Did you tell Aunt Deborah?”
“I thought you did. You didn’t? Why?”
The countess thought they were joking, but it was also late.
“Tell me what?”
Dina looked at her husband.
“Men!”
“Men, what? I thought you wanted to tell people.”
The countess lack of patience was common knowledge among her family and close friends. Roberto was her honorary nephew, her handsome golden boy. But even golden boys do not necessarily take a hint. Fiamma was looking at the scene and could see her honorary sister getting impatient, and she thought she had kept their secret long enough.
“OK. I’ll tell her. Dina is pregnant. The baby is due in the spring.”
The countess hugged them, then turned to her honorary sister.
“How long have you known? Why did you keep it from me?”
She then turned to Dina
“I am so happy for you. I remember how happy I was when I realised I was pregnant with
Giorgio after almost two years of marriage.”
She wished them all good night. Hugged everybody again, opened the door into the internal courtyard of the building and waved at them before closing the door. As she was climbing the two flights of steps to her home, her mind turned to the letter she had received from the Red Cross that morning.
“We tried again, but we have no information on the whereabouts or the death of Raffaele Mustaki, Sylvia Schwartz, or their daughter, Leah Mustaki.”
It sounded final. The countess walked into her home, took off her coat, and entered the study, poured herself a drink to warm up, sat at the desk, and opened the bottom drawer to her right. She picked up two folders. One had ‘Last will of Raffaele Mustaki’ on its cover, and the other ‘Last will of Sylvia Schwartz Mustaki’. She carefully placed them on the desk, her right hand caressing the name on the cover of each folder. It was time to call the cavalry, her honorary nephew Roberto and Rachele, the wife of his brother Gabriele, another honorary nephew.
On her way to her bedroom, she thought of her cunning matchmaking plans for her son, Giorgio. Rachele Modiano, one of the youngest children of a Jewish aristocratic family from Trieste, would make the perfect wife for the future Count Pesaro de Bonfili. Her mistake was to invite Gabriele as well; he and Rachele looked at each other, and the world around them stopped existing. Her cunning plan had not worked. Later, she realised they would have clashed. They had grown fond of each other at a distance. That would not have happened in a mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship. She liked and loved Rachele as her honorary niece.
A formidable woman in her early seventies, the countess still looked impeccable at every moment of the day, still wore high heels and could murder somebody with a polite phrase. She thought of her 'legal cavalry' as she changed into a nightdress and matching nightgown and sat at the dresser to remove her make-up and prepare her face for the night. By the time she was ready for bed, she was sure they would sort things out and find the legal heirs; it was time to pay them a visit.
* * *
The same day, in a displaced people camp in Northern Germany, Rav Lazar and his wife were waiting for a young woman to arrive for dinner. Leah Mustaki’s personal hell did not end when the Allied troops liberated the camp. Months in a US Army hospital brought her back to acceptable levels of weight, stamina, and health. Ruth Lazar was aware that she and her husband represented the closest thing to a family Leah had. They often talked about her, these evening was not an exception. They were discussing her as Ruth was laying the table.
“Do you have any idea why Leah is in no hurry to leave the camp?”
Rav Lazar lifted his head from the book he was reading
“She has lost her memory. Leah lives in the present and changes the subject whenever somebody tries to talk about her past.”
Ruth Lazar looked at the table, then at her husband
“What do doctors say?”
Rav Lazar looked for something he could use as a bookmark before closing the book.
“It is difficult to establish a physical cause for her memory loss. There is a discrepancy between her name and the name the Nazi registered in their ledger next to the number they tattooed on her forearm. Our doctor are not sure whether they can trust the Nazi records.”
“Couldn’t be a mistake?”
“Possibly, but unlikely. In the ledger, Leah Mustaki is registered in the following line.”
Rav Lazar stood up from his arm-chair to get the kiddush cup, the cup he would use later for the blessing before the meal.
“I hope I can bring up the new British doctor in the camp. Our doctors told me he studied with Freud before the war. He might have some ideas to help her recover her memory.”
The table was ready. They were just waiting for Leah and the other guests. Ruth removed her apron. Before she went back to the kitchen to put it away, she turned to her husband.
“I wonder whether Leah is escaping from the memories associated with her real identity.”
“You might have a point. "
There was a knock at the door. The first guests had arrived. Rav Lazar went to open the door.
After dinner, Leah stayed to help with clearing up, a great opportunity for Ruth Lazar to talk to her.
“Your doctor told us that the new British doctor could help you. I think it is worth talking to him.”
Leah was interested
“I will. I want to overcome the sense of emptiness when I think of what might have happened before I woke up in a hospital bed.”
Ruth Lazar saw an opening and continued.
“If the new doctor makes you recover your memory, you may start thinking of a life away from here.”
Leah put down a serving platter she had just dried.
“Maybe. I feel useful here because I can speak Italian, French, German, English and Greek, and even some Polish.”
She picked up another plate to dry, was silent for a few minutes, then continued.
“It is time to try everything I can to get reacquainted with my past. I know there are doubts that I am Leah Mustaki. Do you know my other identity?”
Ruth did not expect that. She put a glass on the drying rack, dried her hands, and turned towards Leah.
“I think my husband does, but the doctor suggested we do not mention it to you until you recover your memory.”
Ruth looked at Leah’s face, she realised the young woman was close to tears. She hugged her. Leah hugged her back and hid her head on the rabbi’s wife shoulders.
“It is time to do everything I can to get my memory back.”
* * *
In Vienna, Joshua Schwartz was considering his future. He had joined the US Army in 1942, raised to officer rank, and was in charge of vetting Austrians as part of the de-Nazification process. He liked the city and his investigative job. From time to time, he was also involved in the search for war criminals. Colonel McLaren’s secretary came with two folders. He couldn’t help but notice Joshua was chasing his thoughts.
“News from home?”
Joshua put the two letters aside and took the folders. He started looking for another folder to send back to the Colonel.
“One is from personnel. They informed me the time has come to decide whether to go home or extend my stay in the Army. The other is from my fiancée.”
He found the folder and gave it to the secretary, then added,
“Please tell the Colonel I’ll be back in fifteen minutes. I need to take a walk in the park to clear my head. I won’t be long.”
The weather was not his friend; it was a cold, damp November day. A walk in the park did not seem such a great idea. He walked past a nearby café; on impulse, he went in for a hot chocolate, a luxury in 1947 Vienna. The café was warm and inviting, and the chocolate was welcome. On his way out, he noticed the office cleaner sitting at a table with somebody. He said hello as he walked past, just to be polite, ignoring the cleaner’s companion. They noticed him. He returned to his office, sat down, and picked up his fiancée’s letter again; he missed her. Joshua reread the letter; it was time to return home and build a life.
Dashed through this in virtually one sitting, constantly engaged by twists and turns that dictate this mystery's path. The setting alone creates something unusual. Not just the cafes and canals of Venice, rendered here with a breezy familiarity that feels absolutely authentic, but also the time period, that immediate post-war setting where costs are being counted, relatives searched for and those that survived are torn between gratitude, guilt and remorse.
The fascinating legal world around the reclaiming of assets seized by fascist governments during the war are the backdrop to this story of one family's attempt to track down a legitimate heir to the estate of relatives killed by the Nazis in the concentration camps. As such, there is a constant awareness of the hideous, unfathomable real-life tragedy that lies behind this story and one of the greatest successes of the novel is that that tragedy is never trivialised nor sensationalised, and yet doesn't derail the atmosphere the author is aiming for. This isn't a harrowing holocaust story; the reality of that horror is kept in check, yet never marginalised. There's an underlying respect for those events that allows the author to do what he's doing with this story.
Against this background, we meet a formidable trio of strong female characters; the lawyer Rachele Modiano Mendes, the Countess Pesaro de Bonfili, and camp survivor Leah Mustaki. These three women are the heart of our story, with the Countess asking the lawyer, a close family friend, to track down the latter and establish the legitimacy or otherwise of her inheritance. All is not what it seems, however, and as we delve further into the mystery surrounding Leah Mustaki, other elements come into play, secrets are exposed and dark conspiracies are unearthed.
There are, it must be said, a few issues. The dramatis personae are many, and introduced at such a rapid rate in the opening few chapters that it almost feels as if it would pay to keep notes. A lot of the supporting characters, as a result, are difficult to get hold of, and seem to serve little purpose other than emphasising the size of the families. There are also a few stock phrases that are over-used in the opening few chapters, to the point of repetitiveness, though this does die down as the story heats up.
Our main cast however, are solid, tangible creations and in Rachele and the Countess, provide a likable, engaging focus for what is undeniably a well-crafted novel. The passage of time, also, is effectively conveyed, with the chapters being identified by their dates and the seasonal changes in weather portrayed in such a way as to allow us to feel time passing - which may feel like a trivial detail but, done badly, can ruin an otherwise promising book. Not so here.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed my time with Rachele Modiano Mendes and look forward to seeing where Stagni takes her next.