I read a lot of books.  At any given month, I lumber through at least seven books.  With my book reviews for Portland Book Review and Elle, and books that I have read reviews about, I always have a long list of books to read.  Often friends tell me I should blog about all the books I read.  It is a great suggestion, but not one that I find I am able to do consistently.  But today, I found the discipline to write about a book I am currently reading called “No One is Here Except All of Us” by Ramona Ausubel.  She is an accomplished writer, as far as I can tell from the book jacket, but it appears this is her first novel.

I have a particular interest in books centered around WWII, especially the Holocaust.  I think my interest centers around how such a horrific event could happen…how could perfectly normal people become such vicious monsters to their neighbors?  It really is mind-boggling.  Ausubel writes with such beauty.  Some of her passages are just incredible.  Of course, now that I want to share them, I cannot find them in the book.  I need to start marking my books when I find an especially tantalizing group of words!

Ausubel’s story surrounds a Garden of Eden of sorts.  There is a community of about 100 people tucked away by a river.  They are virtually untouched.  They have not been affected by the war at all.  One day a stranger arrives and although she integrates into the community, as the reader, you know this entry will be the catalyst for change in  the peaceful, tranquil community.  The stranger and narrator (a twelve year old girl) reason to the group, that they can start the world over again…and so this book is a bit mystical, too.  Alas, the “real” world does not stop or allow the imagined world to reign, and so the story progresses into the depths of reality during war-driven times.  Read on to find out what happens.