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Love and Treasure
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
10 posts | 7 read | 1 reading | 20 to read
A spellbinding new novel of contraband masterpieces, tragic love, and the unexpected legacies of forgotten crimes, Ayelet Waldmans Love and Treasure weaves a tale around the fascinating, true history of the Hungarian Gold Train in the Second World War. In 1945 on the outskirts of Salzburg, victorious American soldiers capture a train filled with unspeakable riches: piles of fine gold watches; mountains of fur coats; crates filled with wedding rings, silver picture frames, family heirlooms, and Shabbat candlesticks passed down through generations. Jack Wiseman, a tough, smart New York Jew, is the lieutenant charged with guarding this treasurea responsibility that grows more complicated when he meets Ilona, a fierce, beautiful Hungarian who has lost everything in the ravages of the Holocaust. Seventy years later, amid the shadowy world of art dealers who profit off the sins of previous generations, Jack gives a necklace to his granddaughter, Natalie Stein, and charges her with searching for an unknown womana woman whose portrait and fate come to haunt Natalie, a woman whose secret may help Natalie to understand the guilt her grandfather will take to his grave and to find a way out of the mess she has made of her own life. A story of brilliantly drawn charactersa suave and shady art historian, a delusive and infatuated Freudian, a family of singing circus dwarfs fallen into the clutches of Josef Mengele, and desperate lovers facing choices that will tear them apartLove and Treasure is Ayelet Waldmans finest novel to date: a sad, funny, richly detailed work that poses hard questions about the value of precious things in a time when life itself has no value, and about the slenderest of chains that can bind us to the griefs and passions of the past. This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.
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review
Loric
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
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Mehso-so

Three main parts, each taking place in a different time with different characters, a locket and it‘s passage from hand to hand over the course of 100 years as a the only common link, this is my kind of story, but the execution was poorly done and this seemed more a trilogy of novellas linked together by a single object.

The first 2 sections held my interest, but the last was tedious and lost that thread that was meant to tie things together.

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AmyLarge
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
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Pickpick

What a treat, to have had the time to read 2 books over the Festive break! This one told a tale of the Hungarian Gold Train, loaded with Hungarian Jewish property, destined never to be Hungarian Jewish with its owners, guarded by a US Jewish soldier, and how one locket links together those seeking treasure across three generations. For some, that treasure is gold, or art, or money, for others it is freedom. Sad, moving and vibrant storytelling.

14 likes1 stack add
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REPollock
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
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I see I am in the minority (on Goodreads at least) in my enjoyment of the third section of this book. I love a good priggish psychoanalyst narrator.

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REPollock
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
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At 1/3 of the way in, it‘s clear this is my favorite kind of puzzle-box of a book, with the plot driven by the provenance of an artifact—in this case, a Jugendstil necklace looted from Hungarian Jews during WW2.

(Illustration non sequitur by Nell Brinkley)

UrsulaMonarch Love the post & illustration!! 6y
4 likes1 comment
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REPollock
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
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Looking forward to this one.

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JSW
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
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Hooked. Completely. Love when a book can do that so quickly!! ❤️❤️❤️ Also, COOL FILTERS FTW!!!

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JSW
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
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Unexpected surprise! My thrift store find is inscribed.

Cinfhen I liked this one! Good find 7y
Kalalalatja Beautiful! 7y
24 likes2 comments
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Cinfhen
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
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This book does not deal with pirate #treasure ,instead it's an entire Nazi train full of stolen valuables seized from the Hungarian Jewish community towards the end of WWII. A train carrying between 1 - 4 billion dollars worth of goods was captured by US servicemen with the premise of sorting and returning all items to the rightful owners. This historical fiction follows 3 interwoven stories and one particular brooch. #pirateslife

Librarybelle Such a good book! My historical fiction group discussed this last year, and everyone loved the writing. We learned a lot from this too. 7y
Cinfhen I know, it was the first time I had read/heard about the Hungarian Gold Train - really fascinating @Librarybelle 7y
DrJAdMerricksson Josh Gates went looking for it on a fascinating Expedition Unknown. 7y
See All 10 Comments
LeeRHarry I really liked this one 😊 7y
Cinfhen I'd like to see that episode, thanks for posting @DrJAdMerricksson 7y
MyNamesParadise Omg a swastika on a train. That image makes me sick! 7y
CrowCAH I heard of this before, all the paintings and art, taken from the homes and stashed away. Good interpretation of treasure! 😊 7y
Reviewsbylola Interesting story and that cover is gorgeous! 7y
Cinfhen It was an interesting story @Reviewsbylola but according to my GoodReads I was not pleased with the ending of the story & honestly I can't remember how it ended... 7y
Reviewsbylola Omg that happens to me all the time! So annoying when you can't remember. 7y
128 likes12 stack adds10 comments
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Cinfhen
Love and Treasure | Ayelet Waldman
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#photoadaynov16 #planestrainsautomobiles I really enjoyed each of these reads, so I'm happy to highlight them! Aviator's Wife is strong historical fiction, featuring the courtship & marriage of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Love and Treasure is a fascinating historical fiction surrounding the 1945 Hungarian Gold Train. Dodgers is a modern coming of age novel involving LA gang members, sent on a road trip to kill a witness in an upcoming trial.

Reviewsbylola Yes, The Aviator's Wife was great! 8y
susanw Love and Treasure ❤️I almost picked that one too! 8y
LeeRHarry Love and Treasure - top pick!! 8y
Cinfhen @susanw @LeeRHarry I almost went for Orphan Train, which I haven't seen mentioned yet 8y
42 likes4 comments