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Hero and villain: The Two Loves of Sophie Strom, by Sam Taylor, reviewed

A Jewish teenager is the victim of a Nazi arson attack in 1933. Alternative scenarios see him joining the French Resistance, and being recruited by the SS

27 April 2024

9:00 AM

27 April 2024

9:00 AM

The Two Loves of Sophie Strom Sam Taylor

Faber, pp.400, 18.99

Counterfactual thinking can be compelling. We imagine love affairs missed out on, tragedies averted. What if I hadn’t boarded that bus or woken from that sleep? Sam Taylor throws this thinking into a vital moment in a young boy’s life that has massive, world- historical resonance.

Vienna, 1933. Nazi sympathisers burn down the flat of a Jewish family.

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